Reflective essay on human experience and personal growth

Human Life in Age of Google

'it wasn't like that back in MY day." Almost every generation has had to hear some version of these words, as parents or grandparents rue the fact that life has altered, irrevocably, from the days when the elderly individual was young. But in recent years technology has changed so rapidly, even many members of Generation Y are wondering if texting, the Internet, and the new ways in which individuals receive and transmit knowledge will affect the human brain. According to one neuroscientist, the brain's nerve cells "routinely break old connections and form new ones" and thus "has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions" (Childs 2008).

A recent essay in the Atlantic by Nicholas Carr asked the question point blank: "Is Google making us stupid?" In other words, is Google making us, as a generation, intellectually lazy and maybe even reprogramming our minds to make them less able to concentrate on complex tasks? Admitted the author, before he began using the Internet on a regular basis: "Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I'd spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That's rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I'm always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle" (Carr 2008). In other words, even brainy magazine writers feel less interested in long books, now that the attractions of quick access to information and entertainment beckons. Access to new information exists 24/7, but this can make it so overwhelming to read everything that skimming, rather than understanding becomes second nature to the brain.

Computers have also changed the way we write -- and thus the way we think and relate to one another. Personally, I do not recall the last time I wrote a letter on a piece of paper: other than signing my name, hand-printing feels too slow and deliberate. Carr would argue that this enforced deliberation and slowness one of the strengths of the process of putting pencil or pen to paper. He quotes: Nietzsche: "our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts" (Carr 2008). Our writing equipment has made communication speedier, but speed can also reduce depth. The impersonal nature of typing and sending a message without actually engaging with the person in a face-to-face manner is also changing the nature of human relationships. It is easier to connect, but also easier to be rude, and harder to talk about serious subjects in a text message than it is in a long letter.

Thus suggests that not only intellectual and academic life that has felt the impact of Google: personal relationships have changed as well. On one hand, people seem more interlinked than ever before: texting, Facebook and Twitter updates enable us to learn what our friends are doing. It is easy to eliminate downtime waiting for trains or driving in a car by checking one's phone. Technology makes it easier to keep in touch with a wider array of people 'on the fly' when busy. But it is also not unusual to see someone in a restaurant, dining with a friend, who is fixated on a cell phone instead of talking to his or her real life companion. The second there is a pause or a dull moment, it is easy to be distracted by another type of stimulus. Modern technology creates an ADD sufferer's paradise. The more common it becomes to use cell phones, the less rude and strange it seems to not talk to someone standing next to you.

There is something dehumanizing about being ignored while a friend talks on a cellphone, or being able to hear someone's conversation word for word while walking in a store. I have often seen someone waiting ahead of me online chatting on their phone, and refuse to engage with the clerk ringing up their order. This clearly conveys the message 'you are not important enough for me to hang up my phone, since I am now talking to someone I really care about." We try to multitask, but end up cutting other people out. We are exposed to so many different people and types of stimulation it is hard to really ingest anything in a meaningful fashion. Even the portrayal of human life on screen has become affected by the Internet. "Television programs add text crawls and pop-up ads, and magazines and newspapers shorten their articles, introduce capsule summaries, and crowd their pages with easy-to-browse info-snippets" (Carr 2008). Instead of focusing on the characters engaged in a dialogue, this type of presentation encourages the viewer to focus on the content around the people on the screen.