The whole internet making you dumber article, was really quiet interesting. And i totally can see their point of view. Today Blair, and I were talking about all the blogging and neat things we have been learning in the Internet for Educators class, and he replied, yah i agree its a good thing, however everytime i go on their to blog I keep getting distracted and side tracked as to what I was there in the first place.
The internet is a very useful tool, and I can really see how it makes us "dumber", but maybe dumber isn't the best word for it, maybe it should be called how internet makes us "lazy". We as a society expect everything quicker, faster and better. The internet has a HUGE role in that "motto". I know personally when im trying to download, or upload, if it takes longer than 2 minutes im cursing and totally frustrated. Just think back to dial up haha, we managed, but with high speed internet everything is a "blink" away, and i think its fair to say that society has become dependent on that speed of accessibility.
Thats how I can i relate to how we stopped thinking indepth, rather just kinda go with the flow. For example, some of the projects we need to in classes now a day take probably an 1/8th of the time, projects 10 years ago did. I know personally, i have become a little to much of a procastotantor mainly because I know once i get started on a task, its really not going to take me long, and to top it off, I will not think twice about it. Did I really use indepth adequate thinking, not at all.
Nate
I've never really thought about the internet contributing to our laziness, but I can see your point. If we can find any bit of information in a split second, or produce something that looks professional in a matter of minutes, what is the point of spending countless hours on it? Why think deeply about something that is at our fingertips?
ReplyDeleteHowever, there comes a point that thinking shallow and procrastination will catch up with us as a society. I think it falls on us as educators to model to our students that "laziness" is a choice. This means we may have to implement tougher standards into our classes so students have motivation to go past the surface knowledge. With so much general information available, we also may have to become more specific in our teaching and thinking to allow students to think deeply about things they never had the opportunity to before. So while I agree that if left unchecked, the internet can make us lazy (human nature promotes doing things the easiest way possible with the least amount of effort), I also believe that we as educators can change this trend by modeling proper internet use and deep thinking skills.