Carr raises good questions, but offers few answers

Is Google making us stupid? Nicholas Carr asks this question in the title of his essay, but he proceeds to raise  more questions than he answers. He is concerned about his own declining ability to focus deeply on text as the Internet-inspired urge to quickly skim information takes over. He compares this sensation to the experience of the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, as the astronaut removes each of its memory banks. Ironically, this scene is a turning point in the film, when a human actually takes back his intellectual autonomy from the artificial intelligence of the machine. Carr believes that artificial intelligence tools, such as Google, may be disengaging us from our brains: They encourage us to rely less on our own memory and cognitive skills and rely more on the memory and cognitive skills of a machine. This is a fear that goes back to the Greek philosophers: Carr also reminds us that Socrates feared the new invention of text would destroy human capacity for memory.

I believe that whether this stupidity actually occurs depends on the person using Google; like any tool, it can be used to pursue deeper thinking and reflection or to disengage from these activities. For me, the easy access has not been a means of laziness, but a means of digging more deeply into subjects that interest me. Never before have I had access to so many sources of information from all over the world and from so many time periods.  My critical thinking skills are also put to work because I have to evaluate all this information to determine whether it is actually reliable and useful.

Unfortunately, I might be the exception rather than the rule because not everyone likes to read.  In particular, I wonder about younger people who grew up with computers and, perhaps, have never been forced to read much text. Although skimming through articles can be useful for breaking news, and probably provides as much information as a television or radio newscast, it does not leave a person well educated about a topic, only narrowly informed. The really smart people will still be the ones who can tackle information in depth. Yes, they skim through sources they find in Google, but they do so with the aim of selecting specific texts suitable to their purpose, and then they read deeply. 

In "Does the Internet Make You Smarter?" Clay Shirky addresses the danger of thinking that the past was rosier, and argues that we need to be more worried about future. He contends that new technological developments have always been controversial; however, that thesis also seems to imply that being knowledgeable about the past is key to ensuring a brighter future.

Google is a tool. Depending on how we use it, Google can help us to either enhance or limit our intelligence.