Is Google Making You Stupid?

by Jun 10, 2008

Nicholas Carr writes this in The Atlantic:

I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. 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.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets—reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link.
(link via LifeHacker)

I know exactly what he’s talking about. It’s getting harder and harder for me to keep my concentration going when I read long passages of Scripture. That makes it much harder to do one of the most important parts of Bible study: understanding how one section relates to what’s before and after it.

Context is crucial. Do you believe you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, like it says in Philippians 4:13? Maybe you should read the entire chapter before you try jumping off a bridge and expecting Christ to give you the ability to fly.

Our sound-bite mentality can lead to some dangerous interpretations of Scripture. So I’ve made up my mind: all blog posts will be 10 pages or more from now on. Don’t worry – it’ll be good for you.