Lessig's TED talk was one of the best I've seen in awhile. I wholeheartedly agree that many of the criticisms of the internet and technology-- especially those based around copyright, are often unfounded in that the critics of such fail to see the big picture. The internet is creating a smarter, more globally aware and more diverse culture.
Unlike Carr, I believe the internet also has the potential to teach us to become better readers and writers as well as better debaters. Though technology is greatly beneficial to human progress, it has its downsides as well. Technology has resulted in children becoming accustomed to being surrounded by stimuli at all times. That is what I think has caused people's trouble with focusing on anything, not just reading. If anything, I think reading has simply resulted in more people becoming able to power read. Before my family got the internet, I was an avid bookreader, and definitely a power reader.
- If people can read these so quickly and still retain information, "power reading" is definitely not the culprit for forgetfulness.
I'd read all of Harry Potter in two, three days tops. The thing is, I don't think power reading has to result in not retaining information. It's perfectly plausible to read through a document quickly and still process it. The thing is, the need to process it just isn't ingrained in our minds because we know that we can easily find it again.
We're used to being able to find information at any time, and so we don't feel that we have the need to research or remember things until we absolutely need them. Carr had almost hit this point when he talked about the ability to find information so quickly and easily results in people becoming distracted easily. Though some people may consider technology an educational benefit (I do as well, within reason), it can result in a lack of intrinsic motivation to research and experience topics first hand. I believe it's largely the cause of a culture that does not value museums and other educational institutions as much. After all, why go to a museum if you can learn about it from the comfort of your own home?
Why waste time learning when it is possible to look up the information when it is needed? I have heard this mindset defended by a misinterpretation of Albert Einstein’s quote, “[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books…The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.” The problem is, Einstein did not mean to deny one’s intellect of all information. He merely meant that one should focus on understanding concepts, critical thinking, and how to research on one’s own. That's where museums and schools should be focusing their studies-- not on the facts, but on the process of learning and discovery. Museums of all kinds could really take a page or three out of the guidebooks of children's museums.
I've had these opinions for a long time, but (thanks to the internet) I only fully realized that it all boils down to shortcuts until recently. You may have heard of an online message board called Reddit. Reddit plays a large part in both the upside and the downside to technology and us as a learning culture. Anyone can post what they believe to be important information, and then anyone can see it and comment on it. Debates more vicious than Model UN or politician elections run rampant within the threads, and I often find myself learning more about the subject in question through those comments than through the article itself. I learn about people from other cultures and how they think, and so it's helped me to be more globally aware in general. This is all wonderful, but if you look at Reddit's format here, you'll likely understand how it also can cause people to become distracted more easily from such an information overload.
Thanks to a thread discussing a woman whose identity was mistaken due to a mixup with social media (and thus her life totally changed), I realized that shortcuts in technology are the true culprit of our troubles with technology. It's not even that they're a problem in itself, but that they're abused and thus, through abuse, have fostered a culture of people who cut-corners (possibly unknowingly) because they trust technology to be infallible. It seems to me that the ease with which people can find information via a single search or click (ie. Google's I'm Feeling Lucky) combined with their consideration of technology to be infallible (ie relying solely on spellcheck), as well as the lack of focus on understanding how to research and think critically in schools has caused much of society to rush through work without doing a source of quality check. People rely so much on computers to check stuff for them they don't think twice about looking at an issue from a human point of view.
I don't think teaching without technology is even a remote possibility anymore-- sure, certain programming doesn't need it, but trying to cut technology out completely only because of what it is will simply not work. Our culture relies on it, and that's how we process information now. We need to embrace it, and find a way to work with it. Moreso, we need to show people how to use it wisely.
