The Internet Is Creating A More Intelligent Society

         Though I may be dating myself by this anecdote, I feel compelled to share it anyway in order to demonstrate how far our society has progressed along the road of the Information Age in the past decade. Whenever I was assigned an essay in 5th grade, I was forced to take a trip to the bookshelves in the basement, locate the shelf creaking under the weight of the enormous Encyclopedia series, run my finger along the alphabetized titles until I found the desired word category, summon all my strength to pull out the gigantic volume, heave it onto the floor, flip through the pages and then proceed to laboriously copy out the encyclopedic entry using paper and a pencil. I would then use this information in my essay to make it more credible and informative. That is how it was done when I was ten years old, and for this reason I loathed writing essays.

       Now, obviously, things are different. As I stated in my last post on this subject, all I need to do now to supply my essays with authoritative sources and facts is to open up my MacBook Pro, get onto Google, type a few words, and there, I have sources and facts in abundance, usually more than I ever want or need. We possess a wealth of information literally at our fingertips, and this is truly amazing to one who has grown up watching the progress of this Information Age unfold. 

      The internet has undeniably altered the way that our society learns, thinks, understands, and researches. Some argue that this change has been for the worse - that because of the internet, now we have shorter attention spans, weaker memorization skills, and shallow minds incapable of deep thought. However true these claims may be, we also can learn much more quickly, we can access a multitude of data in a matter of seconds, we can multi-task easily, we can understand the complex mathematical and physical science that is computer programming, we are able to connect with more people and different cultures around the world, and save so much time and effort through the use of Google, Bing, and Wikipedia. Perhaps we retain less information, but why do we need to? The information is at our fingertips at all times. The internet is not making us less smart, it is "simply challenging us to become smarter in new ways." ("Is the Internet Making Us Smarter or Dumber? Yes.", by Matthew Ingram, June 6th, 2010, Gigaom.com)

      First of all, simply take a moment to stop and contemplate the overwhelming and exhaustive amount of data that exists on cyberspace purely for our cognitive benefit. Contemplating Google alone is enough to blow one's mind. You can literally ask anything, ("Does God exist?", "How do I freeze strawberries?", "Why should I get married?", and "Where can I find Tom's shoes?" are just a few search suggestions that I've seen, meaning that someone out there has actually asked Google these ridiculous questions,) and receive a million answers in a few seconds. Frequently at the dinner table when my little brother asks my dad some random question about why the toilet bubbles when it flushes or what year King Peter the Great died, all my dad has to do it pull out his iphone and find the answer. Our essays and articles are more thoroughly researched and the quality and quantity of our daily information intake is much improved. If the internet is not making us smarter, it is certainly making us much more well-informed. 

      Along those lines I propose my second support of the thesis that that internet is not making us stupider; the internet has proved to be a valuable asset to education. Not only are vast amounts of historical and scientific data available for easy access to the student, but helpful learning websites, educational software, and school gadgets exist in abundance. Throughout high school I benefited enormously through website programs such as Sparknotes' study guides, Collegeboard's SAT and CLEP prep, StudyBlue's easy and efficient online flashcards, and Rosetta Stone's online language games. Reading and writing have become more central to our culture with the use of email, blogs, twitter, facebook, online newspaper sites, and yes, even texting. We can say what we want to say more quickly and efficiently. 

     Thus teens like me, though accused of being shallow-minded zombies addicted to the internet, have benefited perhaps more than any other social group from its use, because we've had myriads of sources to aid our learning. We've learned quickly how to best utilize those sources; we've been able to connect more widely with people all over the world through social networking sites; we've been able to virtually travel to places we never dreamed of; and we've been able to freely share our ideas, express our opinions, and publish our thoughts via the internet. For these purely selfish reasons I'm thankful to have had the internet as an additional teacher during high school.

      What about the accusation that before the internet people were smarter, more learned, more educated, and less distracted? Well to this I can only retort that even during the Middle Ages shallow distractions existed in abundance as well: they always will exist where shallow minds can be found to desire them. This is pure human nature. The internet has given knowledge to those with the wisdom to desire it, just as Gutenberg's printing press gave the Bible to religious and devout individuals. But Gutenberg's printing press also eventually gave issue to cheap sensation newspapers, vulgar fiction and erotic novels, just as the internet is also the source of much pornographic material, misleading advertisements, and shallow distractions. (Angry Birds, anyone??) Something as multi-faceted as the internet cannot be blamed for lowering the IQ level of an entire society. If you are unfocused, scatterbrained, or have weak memorization skills, don't blame the internet - blame yourself. There is a lot of knowledge and learning to be found on the internet if you have the discipline and focus to search for and find it. 

          My final conclusion then, is the same as the title of an online article by Matthew Ingram; "Is the Internet Making Us Smarter or Dumber? Yes." There are numerous good things and numerous bad things about the internet, so its goodness or badness really depends upon how you, as an individual, choose to utilize it. In fact the internet is so double-sided that I discovered I am not the only one to write a debate on the subject - the Wall Street Journal also recently published two articles arguing opposing views about whether the internet is making us smarter or more ignorant. As Ingram concluded his article; "To the extent that we want to use them to become more intelligent, they are doing so; but the very same tools can just as easily be used to become dumber and less informed, just as television can, or the telephone or any other technology, including books." But the advantages, I believe, certainly outweigh the disadvantages. We don't outlaw all books because some of the books contain superficial or inappropriate material, and with the same logic, we can make the best use of all the wonderful things that the internet has to offer.