A Little Of Both...

Every age group in the world today is succumbed to using the Internet.

Whether it be on mainstream computers, handheld cell phones, iPads, or even car monitors, the possibilities of outreaching knowledge & communication through the net is immeasurable. The thought of whether its presence in society is potent enough for future generations to keep using however, is beginning to beget an argument - Is the internet making us Smarter or Dumber?

Personally, I was raised on traditional beliefs and teachings: pen  to pencil, eyes to paper. Print was an advancement of the ages, where the uses of words and the written language was a skill-set that the majority needed to learn. Half-way through my education however, the internet was introduced to me through the use of a computer, changing my learning pattern forever.

Because of the internet’s sudden involvement in my life, skills like browsing, typing, researching, even simple communicating needed to be altered and learned quickly. Something I noticed quite early was that the internet moves and changes rapidly. Everything from the news, television, weather, music, etc. can be found on the internet. It is an endless port or gateway to every technology outlet available.

It is because of the sudden shift in my reality and schooling that I would have to agree with others on the idea of being a “hybrid” of both the traditional and 21^st century worlds. I am able to distinguish the difference between tweet texts and well-versed college papers. I can shift the way my thought process works to create two very different vocabularies and sentence structures based on where my words are going to be placed . Facebook & work emails are separate, and I, in return, almost have two very different distinguishable voices for each.  

I find that, teaching yourself the difference between the two separate worlds is a lot harder than learning them in general.

There are however, some ideas on the internet and its presence that I have definite thoughts and concerns about.

In the article The New Literacy, written by Clive Thompson, it states “The first thing she found is that young people today write far more than any generation before them.” – I agree with this statement and the idea that students and people in general are writing more. How could they not be? Texting is sweeping the nation, with millions being sent all over the world. Along with that there’s blog’s, chat rooms, IMing, tweets, Facebook statuses, websites, the list goes on. The internet was made to be a socializing escape. “The fact that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in my generation did) gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing”. Everything that is written on the internet is visible, making it important to everyone (reading or writing it), unlike that one college paper for that one annoying professor.

“What today's young people know is that knowing who you're writing for and why you're writing might be the most crucial factor of all.”

Reading is a whole different ball game.

Being an avid reader myself, I get angry when books are available online and that people are taking advantage of the physical object known as the novel or story. The smell, texture, and even weight of a book is important – the internet is changing that. In fact, it’s changing how we read as a whole.

I think the article Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr  sums up my thoughts on this subject quite perfectly. “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” Carr’s idea of losing the ability to read longer pieces on the internet, I can definitely agree with. When you’re reading a novel you are submerging yourself into a different reality, but when you’re on the internet you don’t have time to get connected. There are too many advertisements and other links and stories to look at or that grab your attention. People’s attention spans are growing shorter, causing the publications of books to diminish as the year’s roll.

I also think communication at a face-to-face level is changing for the worse. People cannot talk in public anymore. Only through texting or websites are they able to get their ideas and thoughts across to others. People often use the wrong words to voice their opinions in today’s society– mixing the traditional and the 21^st century worlds together.

So is the Internet making us Smarter or Dumber?

Both.