The Jeff Beckham Weblog

Nick Carr has a terrific article in this month’s Atlantic magazine titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?“. It’s an insightful look at how the Web is changing the way we think — moving away from deep concentration, understanding and analysis toward short, scannable, sharable bursts of information.

I don’t agree that Google and the Web are making us stupid, but they are changing the way that we think. Rather than take in a long, scholarly article in one sitting and absorb its meaning, we can read that same article online and easily look up related topics, contextual information, and explanations of key concepts.

There’s definitely irony in the fact that Carr’s article is featured online (broken into four pages), but without the type of linking and contextual information that would make it even more valuable on the Web.

The answer is not all or nothing, however. We need that method of continuous partial attention and quick information retrieval, but we also need to carve out time for quiet thought and contemplation. Although the tools exist now that encourage the former, there is history and tradition to continue and uphold the latter.

One additional note: Last year, our summer interns helped me put together a list of panel and presentation ideas to submit for the South by Southwest Interactive Conference. Among the ones we liked was:

Has Google made us brainless?
Got a question? More than likely, Google has the answer. Has the most powerful search engine made us stupid? It’s easier than ever to find a cursory answer to a meaningful question and the methods of intensive research may be falling by the wayside. Also, how do we determine which results are credible and which are not?

No disrespect to Carr — one of the things his article did was remind me of just how sharp our interns were. In fact, their idea about Google never made it beyond my boss’ email in-box. We submitted three other ideas to SXSW.