Smarter or Stupider

Few weeks ago, I read an article named “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in the Atlantic magazine July/August Edition. The writer merely concerned the overloaded information in the Internet is damaging our brains. Without knowing, the process of thought in our minds are no longer same as the old days without Internet. People are getting impatient when they process information. In the past, before the invention of radio and television, the only way for people to get information was through reading. When people read, they had time to gather and digest the information from books, newspapers, and magazines. Through deep reading, people’s ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections is being trained. Reading is not an instinctive skill just like writing for human beings. We need to train our brain to convert the symbolic characters into certain meanings. However, the proliferation of imagery in today’s world, leave less and less opportunities for people to practice this skill. As the result, more and more people depend on visual images to interpret the information they receive daily. The newspaper industry is declining, but the Internet industry is booming. People are getting lazier to think. Instead, they passively receive parts and pieces information through the images and short articles from Internet. I wonder the proliferation of imagery in the world at large makes us smarter or stupider.