Carr article

I enjoyed this article very much and it really got me thinking about the impact the Internet has on our way of thinking. Carr mentions, as do other writers he talks with, about the difficulties of delving into a long book, reading lengthy newspaper articles, journals, etc. and I connected instantly! In high school, when I didn't spend nearly as much time researching and having to find lots of information that wasn't provided in print for me already, I would read books all of the time for pure joy. I would also read the newspaper and think a lot about current events and my stance on them. Since I started college though, I spend a lot more time on the Internet browsing the web for information. So now, as much as I want to enjoy books and the newspaper for pure enjoyment and contemplation, I just cannot. I get bored so easily and I find myself skimming newspaper articles and books and completely missing the point or deeper meaning/implications. I become so frustrated with myself, but thanks to Carr and his essay, I have now been provided with a scapegoat: the Internet itself. The Internet will never go away. Life could never go back to the way is was even just a couple decade ago, but before my time and the next generation and thereafter will only know how to access information through the Internet. I'm sure one day books won't even be published anymore because they are so easily accessible online. But that isn't even the saddest part, the saddest part is that books and most written material will become so straightforward and easy to access that people will stop challenging themselves to dig deeper and find more meaning and answers (to questions they probably aren't even asking because deep thinking will be diminished). There was a mention in the text about how deep reading and deep thought were "indistinguishable" and I agree with that very much so. Our incessant need to be stimulated all the time is ridiculous. My little brother will be playing on the computer and will have to wait a whole 3o seconds for something to load...but of course he can't sit there and do nothing, he actually gets up and turns the T.V on! It disgusts me to see these kinds of things. I am a thinker, I like to sit and ponder life's big questions, the injustice in the world, the imbalance between the rich and the poor, etc. it is all something I like to think about and discuss. Yet the Internet has taken this away from me to some extent, because people just want hard facts quick and easy. We don't want to sit around and talk or read about things we think have no real answer or that would take too long to answer/fix in the first place. Just because we are filled with lots of random information "like a computer" doesn't make us smart or intellectual or philosophical or whatever, it just means that we are a machine filled with lots of codes. The Internet is doing to our thinking what McDonald's did to dinner...ruining it.