[Web4lib] "Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet isdoing to our brains"

[Phillips, Carrie]

Elizabeth,
 
You might be interested in reading at least chapter 6 from David M. Levy's _Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age_. This particular chapter, titled, "Reading and Attention," gets at the very idea you mention in your message.  Read the whole book if you can - I think it's fantastic, and a great read.  Levy goes into even more detail about this idea and contemplation and the speed of life, etc as he traces the concept of "the document" throughout history and across cultures.  As I read Carr's article on Google, I immediate thought back to this book and found several connections in chapter six.  Levy was one of my professors at the University of Washington's Information School.
 
To hear David Levy speak about this topic, you can listen/watch the Google (*gasp!*) Tech Talk he gave this past March - "No Time To Think."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHGcvj3JiGA  
 
Carrie Phillips
Archives & Special Collections Librarian
Musselman Library
Bluffton University
1 University Drive
Bluffton, OH  45817
phillipsc at bluffton.edu
419-358-3275

________________________________

From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Elizabeth Winter
Sent: Fri 6/20/2008 1:40 PM
To: K.G. Schneider
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] "Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet isdoing to our brains"



Carr may be a little ambitious in what he's trying to do in the space of 5 pages (for those who still print things out), and he loses a little credibility by referring to "the Net," but he makes a number of good observations--things I've noticed in my own habits. 

"Chipping away at my capacity for concentration and contemplation" certainly resonates.  The process of reading this article is illustrative: I read about 25% of it, printed it out, went to get lunch, picked it back up, started reading again, and couldn't finish the article without looking back at my computer screen at least three times to check for new emails.

I'd be interested to hear if others think a value system exists where one has no need for the skills of "concentration and contemplation" (I'm not being snarky...I'm genuinely interested in this question).

Best,
Elizabeth


--
Elizabeth L. Winter
Electronic Resources Coordinator
Collection Acquisitions & Management
Library and Information Center
Georgia Institute of Technology
email: elizabeth.winter at library.gatech.edu
phone: 404.385.0593
fax: 404.894.1723

----- Original Message -----
From: "K.G. Schneider" <kgs at bluehighways.com>
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 10:53:42 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] "Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains"


On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:30:42 -0400, "Ross Singer"
<rossfsinger at gmail.com> said:
> The philosophy of "your values don't match my values so they must mean
> you are stupid and I am right" is a particularly arrogant one, in my
> mind.
>
> -Ross.

Ross, I agree with that statement but disagree that it applies to Carr.
He has the humility to talk about what he believes Google is doing *to
him* as well as to others (and for that matter, phrase it as a
question). When Carr writes, "I'm not thinking the way I used to think,"
I identify -- in part because he isn't standing on a mountaintop
sneering at the scatterbrained masses. I blogged about this today...
after pushing myself to read for a couple of hours, even though the
laptop beckoned from the next room.

I don't agree with everything Carr says, but I agree with the way he
says it.

K.G. Schneider
kgs at freerangelibrarian.com


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