Do you think differently?

I came across a blog entry today at NY Time that focused on another article written by Nicolas Carr at The Atlantic, called “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and found it quite riveting to say the least. Both writers were discussing how the change in our media from the use of printing presses to typewriters to the Internet has changed the way we think and the way that our minds work.

I can argue that the use of the Internet hasn’t changed the way that I think completely or the way that I process information, especially given the amount of time and energy that I spend at a computer on a given day or week. If I totaled it up and gave you an average, I would say that I’m on a computer 84 hours a week minimum. But that would be a complete waste of my time and yours because I would be arguing against something that I know to be partially true. The internet has changed some aspects of how I look for information, and the ways that I communicate, and it has improved how I absorb information and the focus I use on reading and gathering of said information. As much time as I do spend on the ‘net, I don’t often flit from link to link, or go off on random jaunts through the world wide web. I have the places I visit most being my focus and then going off and seeing interesting articles to read when I come across an entry in a friends blog. But I don’t just skim through an article, I read it in its entirety. I don’t want to miss something that could be vital and important. I am the same way with reading printed magazines and books.

And once done reading an article, I always go back to the place from which I deviated. Or if time is limited, I will bookmark it and come back to it later. And by later I usually mean within the day.

Overall, my patterns of habit in reading, information gathering, etc are very similar to how they were before the computer and the internet became available. I am still focused on what I think is important and I can handle doing just one task at a time (like completing this blog entry with minimal interruptions, especially with the laptop next to me dinging when a new email comes in. Yes I checked to see what it was about, but I didn’t let it derail me from my original goal).

Do you feel your thought processes have changed over the years since more types of media and information have become readily available through the internet? I’d really like to know if it has and why.

Tags: google, opinion, thought