Google is warping your mind

The Atlantic Monthly has an article titled ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?‘. We don’t usually think so, but the article is worth a look.

The point is that Google (as a proxy for the Internet and search in general) is changing the way we process information. The author talks about how he and friends of his can no longer tolerate reading long articles or books — instead, they scan, they jump, they skim. And we see magazines and other media changing layouts and content to adapt to this.

Will it make us stupid? I think it could: if you don’t learn how to read a well-reasoned argument, assess the data or information it contains, and put it in context of different opinions, you cannot build up the assets you need to defend yourself against the predators who want your money or your vote. You cannot look at the quality of logic or information by skimming. Just doesn’t happen. People who think it does are happy with ‘me too’ opinions based on their preferred thought leaders. Better hope they are right, because if you haven’t got an independent critical capability, you are at their mercy.