I don’t know if you managed to catch the recent article in The Atlantic called “Is Google Making You Stoopid?”. In it, the author spoke about how Google (and all modern media) is changing the way that we think. Rather than be the type of learners who pour through works with careful attention to detail and long periods of time spent on reflection, we are becoming skimmers and devoting less of our time to contemplation.

The article argued that the way our brain reads is a learned habit, as opposed to speaking which is a natural tendency. So, our learned habit is something influenced by the outside world but it is something that also influences how we see the outside world. Therefore, we no longer learn to read in a contemplative style and as such we don’t see the world in the same contemplative way. Rather than be driven by a contemplative reasoning, we are driven by an information overload by knowing a little about everything rather than everything about one thing.

So, you must know be wondering, why is she wasting my time with this article summary? (more…)