{"id":630,"date":"2010-06-15T08:58:29","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T04:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/?p=630"},"modified":"2010-06-15T08:58:29","modified_gmt":"2010-06-15T04:58:29","slug":"mind-vs-media-what-the-internet-is-doing-to-our-brains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/mind-vs-media-what-the-internet-is-doing-to-our-brains\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind vs Media: What  the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Is Google making us  stupid?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This week I had the opportunity to read through &lsquo;The  Shallows&rsquo;, an interesting book by Nicholas Carr where he describes the weird,  new, artificial digital world in which we now live in. The consequences of the  mental and social transformation created by our new electronic environment are  ubiquitous. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can  literally reroute our neural pathways.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/iWorld\/images\/the-shallows.jpg\" alt=\"the-shallows\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Carr explains the difference between the book and the e-book  in a fascinating way. The hyperlinks on the internet lead us on from one text,  image, or video to another while we&rsquo;re being bombarded by messages, alerts, and  feeds. This glimmering realm of interruption and distraction impedes the sort  of comprehension and retention &lsquo;deep reading&rsquo; engenders.<\/p>\n<p>  Some of the issues explained are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Greater access to knowledge is not  the same as greater knowledge<\/li>\n<li>An ever-increasing plethora of  facts &amp; data is not the same as wisdom<\/li>\n<li>Breadth of knowledge is not the  same as depth of knowledge<\/li>\n<li>Multitasking is not the same as  complexity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whether it is the web or the hand held devices, addiction of  sorts is here to stay. With our growing need to get breaking news and  information alerts at our finger tips, we are becoming increasingly impatient  as a race. We are all so driven by machines and the internet that we have  virtually stopped to think and reason the results of our findings. See if you  can stay off the web long enough to read it!<\/p>\n<p>  Some will argue that the Internet is turning us, and  especially our kids, into fast-twitch airheads incapable of profound cogitation.  It is important to maintain a balance between exercising our mental faculties  and resorting to using the web to help us find all the answers to our problems.  Let us always remember that our brains are smarter than our smart machines.<\/p>\n<p>  Carr (who, yes, uses the Internet) interprets a staggering  amount of scientific evidence and social history to show how we shouldn&rsquo;t allow  the Internet and its accompanying practices to dictate our lives. If you  believe in all of above, get a copy of the book (hard copy) and draw your own  conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>  Send your comments to <a href=\"mailto:sharad@cyber-gear.com\">sharad@cyber-gear.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>  Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sharadagarwal.com\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.sharadagarwal.com\">www.sharadagarwal.com<\/a> for further reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Google making us stupid? This week I had the opportunity to read through &lsquo;The Shallows&rsquo;, an interesting book by Nicholas Carr where he describes the weird, new, artificial digital world in which we now live in. The consequences of the mental and social transformation created by our new electronic environment are ubiquitous. The technologies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}