Is the Internet Still Making Us Stupid?

Nicolas Carr argues that the internet is diminishing our intelligence. He states that our use of the internet fails to foster analytical reading skills. Even Scott Karp, a blogger of online media states that he no longer reads books. Carr deduces that internet causes "our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged."

In the article, Carr also describes a time when Friedrich Nietzsche was getting old and his vision was failing; it hurt badly to continuously stare at a page while writing, and he was afraid he may have to give it up for good. Nietzsche then bought a typewriter. As soon as he mastered the art of typing, he was able to do so with his eyes closed, and thus his vision was not strained. However, one of Nietzsche's colleagues noticed a change in his writing style. Carr states that Nietzsche's "already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic. “Perhaps you will through this instrument even take to a new idiom,” the friend wrote in a letter, noting that, in his own work, his “‘thoughts’ in music and language often depend on the quality of pen and paper.” Here, Carr is trying to make the point that the typewriter had something to do with his change in writing style. But what if it was merely due to Nietzsche just becoming old and crotchety?

Carr also argues, “As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world,” he wrote, “it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.” But weren't we who came up with artificial intelligence in the first place? Technology alone has feathered into something today which nobody could predict 50 years ago.

As deduced from Carr's arguments, he is arguing that the internet has a tendency to take away from our reading and writing skills. This may very well be the case, but are reading and writing skills the only reflection of intelligence? In an article featured in Discover magazine, author Carl Zimmer provides a counter argument to Nicholas Carr; that the internet (and other forms of communicative media) are actually increasing our neurons' functionality. Zimmer cites linguist David Crystal's new book Txtng: The Gr8 Db8:

In his new book, Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, the English linguist David Crystal demonstrates that many of the dire warnings about texting are little more than urban legends. Texting doesn’t lead to bad spelling, he finds. In fact, Crystal writes, “texting actually improves your literacy, as it gives you more practice in reading and writing.”

The internet should really just be seen at as a tool, not a black hole which sucks away our intelligence. It increases our productivity, our social networking options and abilities, it allow us for further access to both information and opinions of objective parties, it gives us maps, definitions, recopies, you name it, its probably available on the web. In my opinion, Carr's argument is null and void. Merely because the information is convenient, doesn't mean it has to make us stupid or uninterested.