Have you ever asked yourself the question; what is the Internet doing to our minds? In the article, “Does the Internet Make You Smarter” by Clay Shirky, he is trying to show a new perspective on the effects the internet has on our minds. Clay is showing us these effects through certain lens he uses within the article. Through these lens, you are able to see the social/intellectual benefits that come from the use of internet. Shirky used a certain lens that caught my attention, which was “our cognitive surplus is so enormous that … create enormous positive effects” (pg 2). Our cognitive surplus is the amount of free time people have, which enables us to put our thoughts and ideas together. In the article, it shows how Wikipedia expresses our cognitive surplus. The article mentions how much time and human thought was devoted into creating Wikipedia. Wikipedia is useful because it took the idea of peer review and used it on a global scale. The peer review process allows people to put their ideas out, but can also be corrected by others. This taps our cognitive surplus because this website takes everyone’s ideas, which makes others exercise their minds while reflecting on what another individual has to say. Before this lens, I was unable to see how the Internet can be useful if we put our ideas together and learn how to use the web responsibly. Now I am able to see how the web helps us exercise our minds while working with one another.

Shirky’s Does the Internet Make Us Smarter explains the benefits of the Internet as well as attempting to put to rest the notions that the Internet is terrible compared to past forms of reading like books. This essay was an exhibit of the lens, which is the effects of the Internet. I found anothet exhibit, which highlights the use of social media and its effects. I am for the side that the internet is actually good for us and in the article I found, there were benefits of social media, which is a subset of the Web. Social media offers the “opportunity for people tobre-connect with old friends and aquaintances, make new friends, trade ideas…”. This is great because now people can come together fot certain causes. I think this is great because this way people can sympathize/relate to others eith maybe a similar disease, and possibly come up with a solution based on the symptoms. The positive effects of coming together help to evolve thr world on a grand scale.

In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, provides a different point of view about the internet that we would not otherwise notice. Carr used a specific lens that stood out to me a little more than the others. Nicholas Carr asserts “We risk turning into ‘ pancake people’—spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button” (14). He refers to people as “pancake people,” widely spreading thin around everything, not having much of a deep meaning in life. Therefore, since everything is now in the network people are turning into a lazy useless phenomenon because as he mentions “the mere touch of a button” can do everything for us. An exhibit that supports Carr’s point is located on the Huffing-ton Post called “How Google Is Changing the Way We Think.” Author Alexis Fitts mentioned, ” Studies have found that people with access to search engines overestimate their intelligence, and that people who read online are more likely to skim.” This supports Carr’s point of view because this action causes humans to not fully understand and analyze the content being read. The issue with the internet is that it causes humans to use their brains less than if they were required to actually look for articles and/or books and read the information to then apply prior knowledge and information to further discuss the topic. I believe that Today, the internet serves as a huge distraction to the world and it has caused many social problems causing people to drift away from others. Therefore, it is agreeable since Carr has proved that google is really making us stupid.

Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” is an composition that gives insight of what Carr believes in how the internet is effecting our reading. One use of lens in the article is the “Deep versus Shallow Reading” as shown in his statement “They found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity”, hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited” (4). This means that people who use the internet do not take the time to fully read an article but instead want to take the short way out by skimming through it. In other words, he believes that the internet is making people lose their focus on any long article they were reading on the web, paralleling his other statement “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing”(3). I think his point is generally true as I have seen and personally have done this “shallow reading” as I also tend to lose focus on any long article on the web. In short the internet has made people become less focus and has made them forget how to fully read like how we used to do with books. I believe this Lens-Exhibit pairing will be of interest to a general reader because it would give them something to think about as it can show them how the internet is effecting the way they read and give them insight of how they should use the Net more wisely.

In the article , “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicolas Carr I was able to notice a few negative effects that come from using the Internet. The fact that we have such a large amount of information on the web is a benefit, however, it comes at a price. People think that since they have this information available to them, it makes them smart or intelligent. There is a quote in the article that states, “they would be thought as knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant … filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom” (pg 12). The problem with the internet is that you stop exercising your brain or memory. You might have the answers to questions, but do not understand how you got to that certain answer. The availability of books end up making people become lazy and less studious. All they want is a shortcut to a mass amount of knowledge, not realizing the importance of gaining knowledge themselves from reading or writing. There are probably many more negative effects that come from the internet that I am still unaware of or have not yet noticed. Even though the internet is seen as “reliable” there are still many cons. The internet gives us artificial knowledge and people begin to forget what it is like to actually read and learn. The internet is a huge distraction to many if not used responsibly. This is why I agree with the idea that the internet is making us stupid.