Smarter Than You Think Analysis

In recent years there has been a rise in technology. People have been using the internet more than ever before. Have we stopped to think about the impact technology has been having on our brains? How has the internet changed the way we think? Nicholas Carr wrote an article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in which he discusses the negative way the internet effects our deep attention. In Clive Thompson's article “Smarter than You Think" he acknowledges the positive effect of the internet on our brains. Even though Carr and Thompson disagree about the affects of the internet on our brains, they are in agreement about the idea that the internet changes our thought processing. We see this through neuroscience, personal experiences, and the

Carr explains that when we use technology we are damaging the deep attention part of our brain. He argues that we begin to lose patience and comprehension for long and complex reading. While talking about Bruce Friedman, Carr says, “His thinking, he said, has taken on a ‘staccato’ quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online” (2008). Carr contends that after a period of time Friedman lost his capacity for deep reading because of the internet. Yet, Thompson argues that we don’t know how our brains are initially wired so we can’t be sure that the internet is rewiring our brains. While talking about rewiring the brain Thompson says, “This goes against the grain of modern discourse, I realize” (2013). In short, we don’t know if technology is physically changing our mental capacity or our brain chemistry. Who’s to say that the internet does have an effect on our brains – or a negative effect for that matter? Until science further evolves, no one can be

Carr talks about his personal experiences with how the internet altered his deep attention used for reading. “My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle,” (Carr, 2008). After Carr noticed a change in his mental abilities, he began to lean towards the perspective that the internet was dangerous. For those that were adept readers, what happens when they begin to use the internet? Will they still have the patience to make it through a long novel? Thompson’s personal experiences with technology have shown him the many benefits. He discusses the three central biases: external memory, finding connections, and the superfluity of communication and publishing. He goes on to explain how each of these biases benefits people and how technology can be a good thing. “Indeed these phenomena have already woven themselves so deeply into the lives of people around the globe that it’s difficult to stand back and take account of how much things have changed and why. While [here I map] out what I call the future of thought, it’s also frankly rooted in the present, because many parts of our future have already arrived, even if they are only