Tools That Change the Way We Think

"Back in 2004, I asked [Google founders] Page and Brin what they saw as the future of Google search. 'It will be included in people's brains,' said Page. 'When you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information.'

'That's true,' said Brin. 'Ultimately I view Google as a way to augment your brain with the knowledge of the world. Right now you go into your computer and type a phrase, but you can imagine that it could be easier in the future, that you can have just devices you talk into, or you can have computers that pay attention to what's going on around them and suggest useful information.'

'Somebody introduces themselves to you, and your watch goes to your web page,' said Page. 'Or if you met this person two years ago, this is what they said to you... Eventually you'll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer."

-From In the Plex by Steven Levy (p.67)

Answer this not-so-simple question: How does extensive Internet/media/technology use change the way you think? Focus on your memory, your ability to concentrate, your sense of time and priorities, and the subjects/topics that interest you most.

Learning about the Internet and technology and web 2.0, and such, has forced me to begin to think about how my thinking processes have been affected. Upon reflection, I have realized that I’ve (automatically) become lazier, for lack of a better word, and increasingly less able to maintain a high level of concentration and/or focus. I am constantly getting sidetracked; I find it hard to stay focused on one task at a time; I constantly feel the need to move on to something different; I want to move through things quicker. I can hardly sit down and read an academic text for longer than twenty minutes before I start checking how much is left, itching to skim through the remainder, move on, and just get someone else to fill me in on what I missed.

I think that most of these consequences stem from the rapidity and brevity of information shared through technology. For example, if I want to research President Lincoln’s role in the Civil War all I would have to do is type “lincoln + civil war” into the search engine and out comes about 24,700,000 results in only .17 seconds. Simple enough. But if I wanted to do this very same research offline I would have to actually read through a number of texts and decipher the useful information for myself. Just twenty short years ago this was the norm. But now, with all of the advances made in technology and Internet sharing, offline research is perceived to be inefficient and, consequently, rendered obsolete.

These values are definitely reflected in the tendencies I mentioned above. Why sift through (what feels like) mountains of information when everything that I need is just a click away? My frequent/prolonged use of technology has me convinced that the internet is a much better and more effective resource than a reference/text book.