Article Analysis Essay on Wasting Time on the Internet and Is Google Making Us Stupid

Introduction

Since the innovation of technology, the issue of the effects of spending time on the internet has always been the topic in most debates. For example, Socrates described this matter in his "Phaedrus" during his writing concerning how books make the soul oblivious. He cautioned that the new group of intellects was instinctively trusting external printed sources and that the library played a role in encouraging this idea. It is perceived that the onset of technology contributed to a breeding upsurge of psychological issues. The advent of the television age got a similar conceptual outlook where the radio and TV were liable for making children turn their backs on books and giving the mind unreceptive pleasure. The same applies to the growing use of Google and time spent on the internet which is believed to be making people stupid.

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Is Google Making Us Stupid? By Nicholas Carr appeared in the Atlantic in 2008. The article demonstrates the degree to which internet usage affects our general thinking capacity and our attention span. The author justifies his ideas by including evidence from research by several universities and other groups. His main point is that, for more than thirty years, there have been continuous introductions of new technologies which render humans unable to read and think critically. This idea by Carr merely signifies how humans no longer put effort into reading books and critical thinking when faced with an issue. Instead, they quickly turn to Google in search of answers to everything.

In the beginning, Carr recalls a scene from the "2001: Space Odyssey." A spectacular moment during the dismantlement of the supercomputer Hal, he begins to feel pity for his life when each wire is disconnected (355). The author refers to this scene since he thinks the human brain is Hal. The only comparison is that humans sabotage themselves, while Hal was ripped to pieces by his human humans. Carr reveals how he feels as if someone or something is restructuring his mind reprogramming and remapping it - this is as a result of the decline in our critical thinking and attention span. People are now trading their acquired knowledge for the superficiality of the internet.

On the other hand, Goldsmith's article "Wasting Time on the Internet" denies that is what people are doing when that is what they do. Goldsmith underlines the associations and astonishments integral in digital exploration that is seemingly aimless. His proclamation indicates how our time on the Internet is not generally wasted; however, it is very profitable and imaginative as he puts the involvement in its legitimate hypothetical and philosophical setting. The author tries to make his audience to reconsider the Internet. Most individuals feel remorseful in the wake of investing hours on social media, searching through things, or watching videos online (Goldsmith 501). Goldsmith perceives that "squandered" time in a different way. In contrast to old media, the Internet requires dynamic commitment-and it is making humans more productive, progressively social, and increasingly innovative.

Goldsmith spends little effort in the book discussing the ways that the majority of individuals sit around idling on the internet. He concedes that he ends up falling back on the beautiful reliefs of Facebook, regarding it as an easy way of getting what he needs there than in the internet's less advanced areas. In any case, Goldsmith recommends we should advise ourselves that the internet is a scrappy and chaotic place, regardless of its inexorably corporate broadways. Where articles like this one frequently propose some great hypothesis of the advanced culture, Goldsmith instead contends that we should treat the disjunctive as an increasingly natural method for encircling what is, basically, a medium that resists peculiarity (503). As such, we should give the internet a chance to continue being a self-indulgent interwoven, declining to fasten together these different shards into something bound together and reasonable.

Carr's article makes us wary of a portion of the data that he has given. The perception that Carr forms of advertisements, particularly hyperlinks, is deceptive since he claims that "internet users have little say on it" (Carr 358). What he fails to focus on is the fact that internet tools such as hyperlinks and cookies, could be contributing to the internet's suitability. It is important that even though the data we get from Google is moulded to suit what a particular expert commands, our mind execution is improving. Critical thinking may be so low to such an extent that we neglect to differentiate truth from fiction, yet spending time on the internet has its advantages.

As Goldsmith states "Our gadgets may transform us, although to state that they are dehumanizing us is essentially off-base" (Goldsmith 501). Here Goldsmith depends most on close to home perception. A man ridiculed for disregarding a staggering moonrise while messaging his sweetheart answers, "I can see the moon whenever, yet this is the main time I can be having this discussion" (Goldsmith 502) Goldsmith's sister-in-law takes away his nephew's telephone, to make him experience reality, just to find he cannot interact with friends, since she has taken his gadget.

Carr might be correct; society could become overly simple-minded and fail to think over situations critically. Most individuals now believe that Google is the only solution. Hence, they fail to make an extra attempt to challenging their intelligence by carrying out extensive research. As the author notes from his experience, humans do not deal with confusing information and complex notions any more. He quotes "Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words," and "Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski" (Carr 356). Carr is referring to his inability to writing eloquently like before - a negative impact of the internet world.

Unlike Carr, Goldsmith develops his exciting bits of knowledge, battling that our digital lives are reshaping human experience. When people are "wasting time", they tend to be making a culture of joint effort. We are writing and reading more-and in an unexpected way. Furthermore, we are reversing the ideas of power and credibility. The Internet places us in a situation flanked by subconscious flow and deep concentration, a condition that Goldsmith contends is essential for inventiveness. Where that imagination takes us will be one of the narratives of the twenty-first century.

Conclusion

In Carr's article, his main point is that individual discipline plays an essential part in our internet usage. Even though there are several temptations which might hinder our attention span, with critical thinking and concentration, we could fruitfully evade them. Carr makes his audience wary of the idea that they ought to be careful not to become slaves of technology. But then, Goldsmith takes a different approach, arguing that people ought to free themselves from humiliation and embrace the benefits of the internet and "wasting time" - a venture which might be self-defeating. He emphasizes that it is time to ignore the unsophisticated blame of wasting time on the internet and instead start exploring and maybe even celebrating the difficult situations which we experience.

Works Cited

Carr, Nicholas. Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. Vol. 1. July 2008.

Goldsmith, Kenneth. Wasting Time on The Internet. Harper Perennial, 2016.