The Internet and Our Thought Process

During the first half of class Professor Strate mentioned an article by Nicholas Carr titled, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?," which is an article i found particularly interesting. I had to read it for my philosophical ethics class last semester and actually found it very easy to relate to, and maybe you guys would too. The main idea of the article is that the Internet is changing the way that we think as human beings. In his article Carr mentions how he used to be able to read lengthy articles and books quite often and had no problem with it, but ever since he started spending a lot of time online surfing and browsing the web he has noticed a change in his mental patterns. Those lengthy readings which used to prove very easy for him now become a struggle as he looks for something new to do after about three pages or so of reading. His attributes this change in his mental patterns to the way the Internet has shaped it. In the article he says, "As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought." He then goes on to say that the Net is chipping away at his his capacity for concentration and contemplation. Personally, I have always found lengthy readings to be quite a bit of a drag, and after reading this article I can definitely relate with Carr. Whenever I begin a reading I start off alert and able to analyze what I am actually reading but after a couple of pages I begin to lose interest and drifting off, reading the material but not actually thinking about what I read. Instead of staying alert throughout the reading I find myself wondering what I could do besides reading. I definitely agree that the Internet is a huge part of why I find myself unable to concentrate. Not so much because I would rather be surfing the web than reading a book, but because of the thought process that the Internet shapes. We have even mentioned in class how the layout of a web page grabs your attention in a hundred different ways at once. I could be halfway through reading an article on the internet and see a link on the side that interests me, and instead of finishing the article I will go straight to the link and see what it's about. Personally, I feel that the Internet definitely fosters a mind that likes to get information quick and easy, and not spend time reading through a long passage to find out certain information. I wonder if this is the case with most of our generation, having grown up in the age of the Internet. Let me know what you guys think.