Google. The website we all depend on for information. Whether it comes to essays, pictures, or even personal information. It is always there for us when we need it. It is an easy and fast way to gather the information that we need instead of spending hours in a library flipping through books of over 1500 pages of information that isnt required. It may be an easier way for us to find things but is it making us stupid and less intelligent?
The basic form of the internet developed in the year 1969 and Google wasn't created until the 1990s. So we had the internet for over 20 years without Google. What did people do on the internet back then? Did they blog? Did they post pictures on unknown websites? Who knows? All I know is, ever since Google was distributed on the internet so people all over the globe could access it, it has made us even lazier than we were years ago.
I'm going to be brutally honest. When I am doing an assignment and I want quick, updated info, I probably go straight to google to gather the information I need in a flash. It is a very quick and easy way to help you. And I personally think that Google is making us stupid. The library is not used half as much as it used to and we just get lazy to the point where we don't want to spend hours researching. When it comes to Google, it is just clicks away from finishing that 20 page essay you need for that media class. It really has taken control of our life. . As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.
The worst part is, being on the internet is generally very distracting. We go on Google to research a topic, end up on facebook, decide to listen to music while doing your homework, and just end up completely losing focus. Some people have to fight to focus and finish their assignment. I wish I could say that we could get rid of this addiction of losing focus on the world wide web but is just isn't that easy.
When I was younger, I was not introduced to much technology. I was always outside riding my bike, playing hopscotch, going to the park with my family and just enjoying being a kid. I had a tv but it only had around 6 channels so I rarely watched tv. I started playing piano and then that became a big part of my life. Now that there is satellite tv, blackberry's and i-Phones, and the world wide web, it really seems like it has taken over me. It is like a drug I can not quit. I am 100% addicted to it. I am constantly on my blackberry and constantly on facebook. I have completely lost touch with the outside world. They already portray the outside world online so what's the point right?
Google has made people lazier and lazier over the years. We are so dependant on the information that Google provides, we don't take the time to actually learn anything. We end up copying and pasting information to finish that last sentence to tie together that last paragraph in the tough essay you procrastinated to finish.
We really do not learn as much as we used to and I wish I could say that technology is going to change and we will be smarter, but it is just getting worse and worse and Web 2.0 is going to develop into something huge. We never know what the future holds with all this technology that is developing. All I am hoping is that I don't get lazy to the point where I am sitting on my butt the entire day doing nothing. I want to be able to do something and enjoy life. Google has to get out of our lives. Otherwise, we will not learn anything and there is just really no point in learning anything new.
All I can say is good luck to the future generation and I hope that we can still live our lives without the media taking over and posessing us.
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