On Air: Does the internet change how we think, read and remember?

I could say the Internet is killing a deeper approach to reading which involves use of higher order cognitive skills, such as, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, negotiating meaning with authors of texts, et cetera. Instead, it promotes surface reading, i.e tacit acceptance of information which leads to superficial retention for exams. Im speaking from a college or university context

In many campuses around the world, students simply copy and paste material on the net that they deem relevant to a given task or assignment resulting in plagiarism. Some students think that the Internet is full of knowledge and I keep telling them that the Internet is only awash with information.And that it requires an intelligent student to use that information, say, for research. The Internet in the acadeamia is a very useful tool for research but it takes a wise person to use this tool in a productive manner.

I think it's a generational thing. The Gen Y types have this "saying" called "tl;dr" which stands for "too long; didn't read". The impact has had no impact upon how I read, other than I read a lot more now than I used to. Nor do I think google is making people stupid. Back when I was in high school, the only way you could do any research was by going to a library, which may or may not be open, depending upon the day and the hour. Now, you can get pretty much any question you want answered by using google.

Virtually all legal research now is online. Many law libraries are no longer even supplementing treatises or other secondary sources because it's so much cheaper for them to use electronic databases like Lexis or Westlaw.

Even sources like wikipedia are good so long as you take the information with a grain of salt if it's anything poltical in nature.If you used it too look up a military airplane or a naval vessel, I have no doubt the information is highly accurate.

However, once you get to things like twitter or facebook, where people post their every thought, it really bugs and depresses me because of how narcissistic society is getting.

The internet is a tool, just like anything else. If you're the kind of person who doesn't have the patience to sit down and read a book, you're not going to have the patience to read anything in-depth on the internet either.

If you're the kind of person who needs constant mental stimulation, the internet is excellent at providing that. This doesn't mean that the internet has changed how you think, just that it is showing the true you. (I say this as I'm listening to internet radio on my mobile phone, so draw your own conclusions.)

Once I was skeptical of all I read, heard, and saw and then the internet happened and…no wait, I’m still skeptical of everything I read, see and hear. Hey folks, the net has inherent trade-offs just as does any other communications medium. It can cut quickly, but in a broad and shallow way. Deep and precise research still requires multiple, usually none internet, resources and a good bit of effort applied with common sense. I guess the trouble with this simplistic “It hasn’t changed me.” argument is: I was taught to think analytically before the internet existed. Still, one shouldn’t think too badly of medium that facilitates global conversation about its evils.
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The Internet has enhanced my life. I always read books, but now thanks to Project Gutenberg, I can find and read many more of them. I always kept in touch with my family, but now thanks to Facebook, email, and Skype, I can stay much closer to them. I always enjoyed learning, but now thanks to Wikipedia, innumerable online dictionaries, and university online courses, I can access more information about more topics than ever before. I've always stayed abreast of politics and the news, but now thanks to the range and breadth of media outlets on the world wide web, I can follow events from more than one point of view. I've always been good at critical thinking, but now thanks to the glut of data that's out there, I'm exercising it far more than I used to.

I think that Mr. Carr is correct. It's been noted that information isn't the same as knowledge, so any medium that allows us to dip into shallow, and unqualified, information has the potential to work against the development of more thorough knowledge. BUT! I love the internet and consider it a huge benefit to society. The problem is not the tool, but how it's used. If it's a babysitter that frees us from having to interact with children while they develop habits that steer them through education and adulthood, then it's no better than Orwell's baby bottle with alcohol (read the book). I recently returned from a week of backpacking, in the wilderness without electricity, my laptop would have been dead weight, so I took a book; China Mieville's "Kraken" which I thoroughly enjoyed and might not have read without the respite from the internet but about which I might never
have known but for the New York Times book review that I read - on the internet.

As Nicolas Carr puts it, to paraphrase him a little, - we ski on the surface of words. The Internet does change our way of reading, our ability to memorise and our way of thinking. Besides, the old solid referencing is gone. It is silly and superficial to use a short Internet article for reference in a scholarly paper, but the Internet keeps you itching for the new, although sketchy abd superficial. And so scholarly papers also become hasty, fragmented and superficial. What is still worse, is that young authors despise references thirty or so years old and kill the experienced authors for that. Here we are, with the time flying by and with the product of thought detriorating. Thank you.
Marija Liudvika Rutkauskaite

It is my belief that information is on the Internet but KNOWLEDGE is in books.
We scan the Internet but when we read we take deliberate time and absorb what is written on paper.
Too often I see people skimming the first 2 and last paragraphs of an Internet article and drawing a conclusion absent the "color" of what is being written about that might shift ones opinion or quest for additional information.

I can see Carr's criticisms in a way, but I wonder if easy blame isn't being placed on the Internet for issues that existed before Internet hyper-connection. For instance, my experience as a teacher saw children reading less twenty years ago than they do now. Given, Internet-reading lets one be selective and superficial, but the fact of more reading itself, is actually a benefit, I think.

As for lack of depth and thoughtful reading, I'm also not sure the Internet is a demon. Children who are raised to love books, continue to read them, in addition to surfing the web, perusing magazines, etc. Children who are not raised with the model of parental reading at least are processing the written word on the Net, even if they never discover books on their own. Our own children hate reading books, despite that we are parents who love to read (go figure!), however, their learning styles DO appreciate reading thanks to the Internet, and the functionality of processing words in sentences and paragraphs continues to expand their lives and their other excellent talents.

I think the crucial point has been made: that information and knowledge are not the same thing. If you think about learning another language, memorising a dictionary doesn’t mean you could hold a conversation in that language or even make much sense of any kind of discourse at the deeper level which goes beyond mere word-level comprehension, context being the essential component that gives words meaning.
Knowledge is something you have to construct for yourself, a dynamic process that goes on in the brain, data and information are the raw materials and of course it is possible to have information overload.
I don’t know whether the fact that the info appears on a screen or is found in a book makes much difference, for instance when learning about history, you have to read a number of different historians and be aware of their ideological viewpoint, before constructing your own version of a series of events.

Google is making us skimming people who no longer deep-dive into the oceans of the intelligent words. We skim like flat pebbles over the water's surface, eventually, inevitably sinking into Davy Jone’s locker. The end.
Though I'm aware that fewer and fewer young people are reading books (even E-books), I am of the older generation and continue to read at least one book/week.
I think that the younger generation tends to be too accepting of what they skim from the Internet. Too often, they cannot tell a good source from a bad source, and are exceedingly gullible about supporting causes about which they know little or nothing.
Deep reading may be over-rated, but deep-thinking is not. I often play with ideas in my head, bouncing them around until I settle into my own position on matters that I think are important.
I don’t think it's a good thing to be “mentally…in perpetual locomotion”. The human brain needs time for asimilation, digestion, and opinionating.
For me, Nicholas is wrong: I actually did click all the links to read more deeply. I wanted to make sure that I was using all the information at hand to formulate my opinion. I guess my (older) generation have never made the 'pancake’ stack.
I still engage in quiet time to assimulate, digest and opinionate. I have an excellent memory for dates and facts, though I can easily forget where I put my glasses, or even one of my four cats.

Blaming the Internet for lazy reading and research is, again, ascribing the fact of already existing human frailties to a tool whose use depends upon the user, not the tool itself. As a teacher, I have taught children to be skeptical of words on paper and words on-line, but without such instruction, the written word can be understanding's own worst enemy.

I do believe today's heightened emotionalism and twisting of facts to serve a narrow purpose has been exacerbated by the Internet, but not because the Internet is bad. Instead, the human tendency for group-think (ala the Spanish Inquisition, the Huguenot Rebellion, anti-any-ism, etc.) makes a majority (who are followers) vulnerable to the multiplicity of sites whose "putting foolishness in print" lends a factual aura to drivel. The issue, however, is not the sites, or the soul-less folks who skew facts to their own purpose, rather the problem lies with people not practicing logical and skeptical reading/thinking in the first place. I think this is a relatively easy problem to address; if leaders (in any realm) modeled fair and honest discussion, if the media (including Internet) admonished viewers/readers to beware of spin-doctors and taught how spin is spun, if thinking people spoke up every time mis-information is spouted, the respect for words and the thinking represented by them would increase exponentially. To date, there has been no cure for gullibility, but perhaps the Internet's power will prod us to finally address this most insidious and dangerous of human conditions.

Alas! Did my comment go down the black hole? Ouch!

Dad burn it, I am not a "new user". But I understand.

Internet? Read, Think and Remember? I can't believe mankind doubt on internet blessing on our normal lives especially for development, Security, Education and Social networks. Internet gathering youth from all angle, let me give one incident happened on facebook social network last year, I never knew my family shared same surmane or family name (Dangalan) with another family in China, one of them sent my palship request after i accepted him, he then began to asked me questions like '' Are you from Chine?' i said nope am from Nigeria and he continue do have any family from there? I nope again and told him that fully African and Nigeria. I informed my father about it, he think to remember his past and surprise. Now we are friends not a family.

On the subject of the Internet leading to a plague of plagiarism among students cutting and pasting things they’ve found online into their essays, the blame for that should sit fairly and squarely on the shoulders of education systems and/or teachers.
If the education system allows teachers to know their students well enough, i.e. reasonably small classes and lessons in which there is plenty of discussion and interaction, such plagiarism should stand out like a sore thumb, particularly since it’s usually the less able students who resort to it. In that situation, it’s just plain laziness on the part of teachers not to do some digging, not necessarily in a punitive frame of mind (at least at first) but to help students having real difficulties and also to “educate” them that all that glisters on the Internet definitely ain’t gold!
During my second go at university (’94-‘98) a couple of lecturers said they could identify my essays instantly, even the ones done under exam conditions which are supposedly anonymous for assessment, as they could hear me talking, and not many other students had my tendency to inject the odd moment of levity into linguistics essays.

As a writer with limited means, the Internet has opened the world to me, and most especially Derbyshire, England - a place I have never visited first-hand, but have recreated so effectively (thanks to Internet research) that a friend has exclaimed that she lives my story while she walks her acres where the story takes place. No matter the writing skill involved, the details would not exist, but for the Internet, and I am VERY grateful.

The above point is clear; as a tool, the Net reveals the world in-depth to those with the education and the interest to use it to its full potential. Rather than decrying the Internet because the majority use it superficially, time would be better vested in expanding the individual's tools to plumb the potential of the Net and thereby expand ourselves.

If there weren't the Internet, TV multiple channels could take the blame for what the Internet is accused of as TV has also become an addiction for many who spend time watching it more than being with the others. There are also game gadgets. Technology has transformed the life of many in becoming lone beings befriending or taking as friends TV stars, websites and gadgets.

In the past there were just books, radio and written media to get information. Now there is a flood of information and thousands of pages on the Internet about the same subject.

Perhaps people addicted to the Internet should start learning that they aren't devices connected to the web and their brain can't function normally without having one's fingers tied to the keyboard and phone buttons.

In the past, it was shameful to say that one didn't know anything about computer or didn't have Internet connection. Now it's time to consider being away as far as possible from the computer and the Internet the normal thing to do and to focus just on what is immediate. Too much unnecessary knowledge is just the cause of futile headaches. It's like seeking to know as much as possible about the private lives of people which must be nobody's business.

The internet has more a positive than a negative side, so that to use it more for what good it does and stay away from the bad part of it. Keep your personal information secret to youself always, do not participate or get involved in areas which may be detrimental to you regardless as to how good it appears on the internet. Everyone requires information which is essential in our everyday life, it should be welcomed to improve oneself.

I actually lay "brain change" at the feet of video game-action play, not the Internet. Given, some Internet sites replicate game-action into words (like Facebook and Twitter), but these do not impugn the Net as a re-programmer of our brain functions.

Yes, the Internet IS a vehicle for game-action mediums, but it is also a vehicle for art and science, history and current events, etc., etc. I think a more relavent issue to be explored is "why is the human brain so attracted (and addicted) to game-action?" (especially when it is introduced at a young age.)

Should we be worried that game-action-oriented brains will control the world in another generation? I doubt it. Every generation questions whether the next one (with whatever new attributes/sensitivities it brings to the table) will be able to manage as well as the old-er one did - and to date, the new generations have coped at least as well as past ones. As a teacher from the "old-er generation," I DO appreciate that kids today learn differently (thanks to game-action), however I also know that when push comes to shove, those same kids rise to the occasion and address problems effectively, albeit with different tools than I had at my disposal as a child and young-adult.

I find the net year useful. I've been attached to it and it possibilities since the early 80's. I was in the Air Force and occasionally worked with a DARPA terminal. Thought the IBM terminal was useless compared to current standards, I was very impressed at it usefulness. I've used it ever since at various jobs over the years, besides for my personal pleasure.

I feel that I grown and learned more via the web, than at any other time in my life and the resources just keep growing.

But I love to read books. I deal with technical info all day, so when I read it's for pleasure. I won't tell you that I lone Fantasy, Sci-Fi and various other fiction along with art mags. You'd think me odd! Yes I am!!

I don't think the web has changed the way I think, remember or process info. I think it has improved and empowered my potential as a person.

No doubt, when books became available to nearly everyone, some complained that putting knowledge and memories in books so that people no longer had to use their brains to store such knowledge, led to dumber people. Brains are becoming smaller, but probably not dumber.

The net serves as a hyper-brain and each personal computer serves as a neuron. I'm wondering, as a long-time science fiction reader, when or if this hyper-brain will become self-conscious and how it will communicate with its individual neurons.

Sadly yes and as a psychologist I wonder (hate to think) how this current generation of youngsters will grow up and not just relate to the wider world, but to each other and how they think they can get on in it should they find themselves in a situation where they are not in the artificial confines and life support of their all encompassing technology and products.

The way the net panders to people's superficiality and the current crop I referred to, many kids just flitter through information without thinking to deeply about much, so when the net feeds them in this way they feel they are actually learning something without realising the defecits/deficiencies of this approach and the constant need for overblown instant stimulation.

I am not that old but I thank my lucky stars I grew up and was educated just before the tidal wave of the internet washed over everything. Where I can comfortably concentrate on things as they are needed and not be constantly dazzled or distracted by shiny new, noisy things bleeping at me non-stop.

I am a heavy user of the internet and I also have noticed changes in the way I think. Like the author I have a hard time reading long articles, or books because my mind wants to wander. I'm glad to hear that it is not just me having this problem. The author is definitely on to something here.

Tom from North Carolina USA

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

The internet is a fleeting source of information that we cannot rely on entirely to engage us intellectually! When I was growing up, my teachers never told me to look up things from the internet but from books. There's so much distraction from the internet and this is due to the marketing aspect of the internet as a tool - we are forever bombarded with information whenever we go online which obviously makes it pointless to go on the internet for deep and stimulating intellectual materials!

you are dead on-the maslows drive to belong and differentiate are exactly why people create facebook pages and try to get more "friends" than others. The reason we change fundamentally is not in the conscious mind. These tools change the way we THINK.

The internet is really making reading convenient because it is just a library in motion.This is because every thing you will every look for is on the internet. But if you are not discipline you will really not concentrate

For those who separate on-line information from book information, I think the point is a moot one. As Linda From Italy described, "information" sits (on a page or on-line,) while "knowledge" is the processed result after the information has been analyzed and synthesized inside a human brain.

For those who love books (the feel of paper, the turning of the page), "on-line" is a foreign vehicle they cannot relate to, but one vehicle (on-line or in-books) is not more sacrosanct than the other. If the issue is the speed of easy skipping from one site to another, instead of one book sitting in one's lap, I think the site-skipping person would have closed the book after two paragraphs - and then would be left with television to entertain his eyes. People are different. Their skills are different. Deep reading is a gift for which not every person, perhaps even most people, have a propensity, but the Internet ought not to be blamed for nature's selectivity. Now that more people are reading than ever before (due to increased literacy, wealth and the Internet), it behooves those who read with depth to encourage others to do the same, meaning thoughtful readers need to discover the tools to teach others how it is done.

As a child I read everyday, and also wrote a few collection of long and short stories. As the advent of the Internet came, I began to be unable to focus on books. It became harder to absorb myself in the world I was reading about. Sometimes I find that I spend 4 or more hours just sitting in front of Facebook, waiting for some kind of human connection. I regret it, I would rather not have all the distractions and be able to read the way I used to.

The internet has changed a lot of things, but i dont think it has changed the way we think. It has made knowledge and information readily available to us. Rather than going to the library to read a whole lot of books, you could do the same with just an internet browser which is much more easier and even more up to date. Whether you want indepth information or information on the go, you could do all these just by a single click. Yes, everything in this world has it negative impact, but the positive things the internet brings to us over shadows the negative ones. Furthermore, the way and how you use the internet depends you. For instance, i use it at least 2 hours daily for facebook, news, knowledge, and the bbc. Another person might use it for things which are of less value. It all depends on how you use it.

I thought I could be at work while listening to this program. But it is impossible for me to really listen while I do anything useful here. So to keep my job, I must sign off.

Yikes! Looks like I'm getting further distracted by commenting on this site instead of replying to the boss's emails- further evidence of information overload.

The internet is an incredible resource, forget the luddites who romanticize older days. IF our brains are changing, I hope they can change so we can better use it.

I believe there is a considerable difference in reading contents online and going through the same in real books. I mean there is something more in turning over the pages and feeling the letters.

You're going to get a zillion stories like mine:

I'm currently re-editing a space opera I wrote a while back about a failed mission to Mars. I realized that I needed to push the date farther back (or up) to rectify an error in the orginal manuscript (Prez. Obama expects that we'll make the attempt in the mid-2030s, and I intended to comply), and so contemplated spending my Internet-less Sunday afternoon computing the right trajectory at the proper time to the red planet, a prospect about which was giving me a royal headache.

I logged on to the Net to get a few bits of orbital details vis-a-vis the orbits of Earth and Mars -- coordinates of opposition, declinations, stuff like that ... and there it was ... the complete Mars opposition tables, dates, times (in UT), distances, declinations, life, the universe, the whole nine yards. I chose the proper date over a beer.

And then repeated a phrase I've been using a lot lately to the nearby librarian;

The Internet is magic.

If you have a strong mind that refuses to get distracted from the work on hand, you won't! Internet has made me think faster on my fingers, increased the speed of my reflexes & also my concentration! I won't get distracted by anything or anybody. It is all in your mind & why blame the internet if you can't control your own mind? In fact internet has helped me in several ways & I can communicate with the whole world in no time! I wouldn't have reached the heights I wanted to reach without the help of Internet. Blaming the internet for everything is like a bad musician blaming the drums for the bad music he brought before the world! Science & technology brings innovation into peoples lives. How you will get benefited depends on how you use it. If you can't use it properly you have to blame yourself for it not the technology!

I find that I waste way too much time on line but I am also an Old School person who grew up doing research in libraries and reading books.

AFK- Away from keyboard is a good place to me.

As far as reading books for personal enjoyment, I find that I can't do it on-line. There is nothing as luxuriously pleasurable as laying down on my couch to read a good book with a chocolate bar in my hand and a big glass of milk. The internet just can't replace that.

That being said, I do love having access to so much information in an instant. It does feed into my ADD a little, as I can flit from one subject to another in the blink of an eye, but I find as with anything else, if I am interested, I am capable of devoting more in-depth and slower attention to it.

while information is not knowledge, guess what knowledge is built on information. i used to be skeptical of the social engineering web-sites build on web 2.0, but since i satrted my new job and have actually begun to understnd what web 2.0 stands for, I see the hugh potential of information exchange. while we are overloaded with information, we also have nowadays intelligent search algorithems that allow us to search more specifically than ever.