Chase Berger
Ashley Rives
Writing 101
30 Jan 2013
The Web “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr talks about many ideas about the Internet and how it could possibly be hindering the way we think and learn. He even talks about some ways that his own use of the internet has hindered the way he thinks and more specifically he talks about how it has changed the way he reads. When I think back and reflect on the amount of time I have spent online, I notice that it has become an every day habit that can take anywhere from minutes but can quickly be turned into hours. Now, all of this time is not merely spent as unconstructive googling or surfing the web, but often I find the internet to be a very effective and efficient tool that helps me stay connected and informed to the world. “ Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives- or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts- as the Internet does today” (Carr 71). I agree with Carr when he claims that the Internet plays a huge role in our lives because quite honestly it does. My own Internet use is still an every day thing and there are people in the world that are actually addicted to the Internet and wired to it for copious of time every day. Gamers are especially susceptible to spending multiple hours at a time online because it makes it so that they can play with their friends and other people in the world. When Carr talks about the Internet playing so many roles in our lives, that is very true, however; the Internet plays so many roles in our lives because the Internet can do a little bit of just about anything. The internet can keep us connected with old friends and new ones with social networks, the internet has endless amounts of information and research at the touch of a button, it makes it easier to communicate with things like email and Skype, we can also use the internet for many different types of entertainment such as watching movies or listening to music. The point being, if you look at the internet for what it is than you see that it is a fantastic tool that can do just about anything and is a super efficient and effective system that many people could argue makes their lives easier. Today, it makes college life so much easier because it is easier and faster to access information while researching online. Personally, when it comes to researching for a project or a debate, the Internet is usually my main source if not the only source where I found all my information. That does not mean that the information is any less true, but it was easy for me to access and find and I am always careful to use credible sources. The Internet is a fantastic resource because it can take hours of research and crams it into minutes of just some simple googling. The information is a lot of the times, but not always, the same as the information you’ll find in a book, however; it was a lot easier to find and was way more time effective. We are so intrigued with the Internet because we strive to find the fastest and most efficient ways of doing things and the Internet at the moment is the fastest and most efficient way of gaining information. In Deborah Tannen’s essay “ The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope of Dialogue” she talks a lot about how we need to be able to diversify the way we learn and try to stray from the argument culture and strive for new ways of teaching and learning. “ We need to use our imaginations and ingenuity to find different ways to seek truth and gain knowledge, and add them to our arsenal- or should I say, to the ingredients for our stew” (Tannen 426). Tannen wants us to diversify the way we learn and I believe that the Internet plays a big enough role in our lives to be able to claim that it has become a very important tool involving the way we learn and obtain information. In all of my classes, the Internet plays a huge role in keeping us connected and does a