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Jose Andres Careaga

Professor Daniel Norford

ENC1101.MD3

May 22, 2020

Is internet affecting the process of acquiring knowledge?

What would people say about internet in our lives? Throughout the pass of the years, we are going through inevitable changes that have been affected our lifestyle and development as human beings, not only new knowledge but also changes of culture and tradition. In 2008, The Atlantic magazine published an interesting article named "Is google making us stupid?" by Nicolas Carr, an American writer, who question the advantages of the internet, despite their benefits. I strongly agree that technology is affecting our brains in many ways that we cannot see since internet is now essential in our lives. We cannot change internet tends, but we may be able to do something about it. Some critical effects are highly detrimental for readers since they have been suffering cognition issues, which covers different areas. The ones that stand out the most are how humans have been affected their abilities of reading long articles or texts, or mental habits diseases such as read and extract info. Also, how the use of devices affects our abilities to memorize lengthy texts and retain a large amount of information is injurious. Additionally, researches and technology such as artificial intelligence or brain supplements might risk our lives and growth during next years since it is something new and undetermined that we do not know how to deal with.

Firstly, as a way to show evidence of how we have been damaging, this is based on the effect on cognition. I want to mention how reading issues are notorious when people have to read long books, texts, articles, or any extended writing information. Scott Karp, who wrote about how he cannot read books altogether, mentioned the way that as much as he learns (reading) on internet, he has problems catching information. Nicolas Carr explains how, in the past, he could read a long text and informative articles, and now he can't. This is a product of accessible information that people can get today. We are getting lazy because internet finds all the information in less than a second. We do not have to read too much since just asking on google; it is possible to get thousands of answers which talk about what we need. It is not necessary to read an entire article or book as we used to in the past. So, google contributes laziness and lack of reading. Also, it is crucial to talk about how internet is affecting mental habits, which are very dangerous to our abilities to read and extract information. Students and researchers are losing their skills to obtain information because google finds everything without reading. According to Bruce Friedman, a pathologist from the University of Michigan Medical School, he talked about some effects of internet reflecting on him. He cannot absorb more than three or four paragraphs since it is too much.

Another relevant fact is a cognition effect that Google's users face memorizing and retaining info. Reading supports the ability to memorize since our minds exercise every time that we read. Due to Google, users have trouble remembering. Even though it is not proven, According to University College London, people do not read as much as they need on the Web. Readers go straight to the titles since they find it unnecessary to read all the text. They avoid the traditional way for the easiest way. To illustrate a personal experience, when I was young, I used to read airplane books with my father since we are pilots. However, we are not reading books anymore because of internet. We do not have to read more than necessary and wait until the book arrived at my house, in less than a minute, we can find all the specifications about airplanes and aviation. It could be comfortable but disadvantaging to our brains.

Moreover, a significant point to remark is how dangerous it could be the development of new technologies because computers are getting more intelligent than their creator every day. We have to be careful. The development of artificial intelligence or a brain's supplement that apparently connects straight to the brain, it is a prove of how dangerous the technology in our lives could be, and it is unsettling that we cannot do anything without machines and internet. The initiative seems very good. It is useful and helpful since we can reach information faster and easier, but what happens if the computers manage our lives or we start suffering health problems? Probably machines start working by themselves, or what happens if we have trouble with the device in our brains, and they take control of the body, is alarming, treacherous, and inadequate. As a personal experience, I wouldn't say I like it when my phone hears me, and after that, I start watching advertising on my phone screen (Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, or Google) So, we do not have to underestimate the technology and how dangerous could be.

To conclude my position in this essay, I support the development of researches and technology advances in order to contribute a diversity advances such as health, environment, world's problems, world peace, etc. Nevertheless, I am apprehensive about the development of technology in the future. It is clear that our lifestyle has been affected by changes that we do not consider the negative effect since we are useless without Web and machines nowadays. I do not believe that we cannot take a pill if our phones do not tell us what we have to do and when, or people prefer Siri instead of taking a time reading and exercise the mind. Cultures and traditions are getting affected, Web and online connections have no more than 50 years; we lived and worked for thousands of years. It is proven that we do not need electronic devices or any iPhone, Apple Watch, iPod, or iPad to be happy. I hope that the human race think about what really matters to keep our essence of life