Nicholas Carr has an interesting article on The Atlantic.com site called “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr laments that he is no longer able to read a lengthy book without getting a serious case of the fidgets. Aside from other mediating factors, like age, how busy life is, and if the book is any good, a neglected question might address the quality of life (intellectual and otherwise) that comes of having a broader reach.
Carr recalls the historical worriers and worries (writing, printing press, etc.) and notes McLuhan remarks on media shaping the process of thought. Nostalgia aside, however, we don’t exist independently of media; our interaction with all these information flows impacts the technology and the content as well. Carr quotes Taylor’s 1911 treatise “The Principles of Scientific Management.” Taylor’s quest was to create perfect efficiency and is quoted as declaring, “In the past the man has been first, in the future the system must be first.” Well, Taylor is absolutely right but WE are part of the system. None of us exist in isolation from each other or anything in our world and we are all mutually evolving together.
Rather than complain about not being able to read – and we all know that if Carr and all others of this affliction were willing to make the “hard choices” and devote more time to reading long books (and less time Googling) that this would not be a problem—except for what he’d be missing. And I can tell he likes all the access too much to give it up. (I know I would.)
Ah, the catch. How we use information in our lives is a choice we all make. Now as someone with ADD, I don’t have as much sympathy for the short-attention symptoms he decries as the next guy might. You could say that this way of information flows suits the way I’ve always gathered information, kind of darting about like a deranged hummingbird. Nevertheless, there are ways of digging deep even in that style. But frankly, I wouldn’t give up the chance to read the abstracts on 30 or 60 or 100 articles before I make my choice, instead of digging deep into the first one and languishing in the prose. And I don’t find that Google lacks ambiguity; like the old dictionary game, where you string along through the dictionary connected by words you can’t define. I have taken some fascinating and unintended intellectual adventures (and yes, learned stuff, too) by random-walk (okay, algorithmically-generated) Googling. And I’m pretty sure Leonardo da Vinci would have been all for it.
Dr. Pamela Rutledge is available to reporters for comments on the psychological and social impact of media and technology on individuals, society, organizations and brands.