In the first article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr makes the argument that our minds are not going but they are in fact changing because of our increasing use of the internet. Simply reading a text is becoming more and more difficult due to a lack of focus. It is hard and almost impossible to read a text throughout without losing any concentration. Online research techniques, such as Google, are linked directly to this problem. Research without using internet would take a lot more time, having to search through actual books to find what was being searched. This idea almost seems crazy when you have such an efficient, fast and easy way to do your research. However, it has had a negative effect as well. Our brain is not being exercised as much as it would be if we didn’t have the internet. Our minds are not used to having to read long texts because the internet is able to do what we want it to do in just seconds. The brain will work the way it has been trained to work. It can forget old ways and develop new ways to think. “Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.” Personally, I know I’ve come across many instances where I lost all focus in what I was reading. Why read when knowing how much easier it would be to just look up a summary online? This easy access to such an effective tool is at fault for people’s way of thinking. It is almost like our minds have become lazy, relying only on the internet. You don’t even need a computer to have such access. The majority of people with cell phones, do in fact have full access to internet on it. This idea may have been insane 50 years ago but it is possible now and extremely useful. If you need to Google something, you can do it in a second. The internet has destroyed the traditional way of using our minds to think.
In the article, “The Internet Is No Substitute for the Dying Newspaper Industry”, the argument is almost the opposite of the first article. Carr expresses how the internet can be viewed positively for the acceptance of direct and faster information although it does have its disadvantages as well. Hedges thinks that the internet is not an advantage to us at all. Chris Hedges believes that the internet is not equal in conveying what a newspaper can, yet the internet is taking over. In newspapers, writers fulfill the job of reporting, which bloggers or any other writers on the internet fail to do. “The majority of bloggers and Internet addicts, like the endless rows of talking heads on television, do not report. They are largely parasites who cling to traditional news outlets.” People who use the internet for any sort of writing are an annoyance to the world of reporting, according to Hedges. I strongly disagree with his ideas. The intention for any blogger or internet writer is not to replace newspapers, but just to simply express ideas. We use the newspaper to obtain a certain type of information and we use the internet for other information. The internet provides so much more that newspapers cannot, however a newspaper cannot be replaced because of its tradition and substance.