According to author, Nicholas Carr, it isn't just watching television and wasting time that is making us "stupid" - it is the Internet (i.e. Google). Carr is something of a fatalist when it comes to technology. "He views the advent of the Internet as "not just technological progress but a form of human regress.""
Finally, someone I can agree with! Carr's position is that using the Internet can actually rewire our brains so that new skills are gained, but many others are lost along the way.
A few major points to note from "THE JUGGLERS BRAIN" a chapter from Carr's, "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains":
1. The depth of our intelligence hinges on our ability to transfer information from working memory to long-term memory and weave it into conceptual schemes.
2. Those elements that we are able to hold in working memory will ... quickly vanish unless we are able to refresh them by rehearsal.
AND
3. When the [information load in our working memory]exceeds our mind's ability to store and process the information... we're unable to retain the information or to draw connections with the information already stored in our long-term memory.
Carr draws some great points and relevant to our time. The question now is, what do we do about this chronic distraction?
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