THE SATURDAY ESSAY Does the Internet Make You Smarter?
But a variation of this question — “Does the internet make you smarter or dumber?” — is the focus today of “dueling” Wall Street Journal essays by Clay Shirky and Nicholas Carr, who both have new books on the internet and society (See here and here). I place the word dueling in quotes because, though Shirky is the optimist and Carr the pessimist, on some points they are not so far.
In this essay “Does the Internet Make You Smarter or Dumber?” by Nicholas Carr, he argues about the immoral side of the internet. According to Carr, “When we’re constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to forge the strong and expansive neural connections.
In two competing but somewhat orthogonal essays in The Wall Street Journal, Clay Shirky and Nicholas Carr ostensibly argue opposite sides of the Internet's effects on society. In Does the Internet Make You Smarter? Shirky tries to put the Internet in the larger historical context of the commoditization of media creation and dissemination tools.
Arguing that Internet makes you smarter was Clay Shirky, author of the book, “Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.” Mr. Shirky argues that while, “The bulk of publicly available media is now created by people who understand little of the professional standards and practices for media,” over the long-term, the Internet will eventually make “the good stuff.
Does the Internet Make You Smarter? by Clay Shirky The Saturday Essay, June 4, 2010 Wall Street Journal (online) Digital media have made creating and disseminating text, sound, and images cheap, easy and global. The bulk of publicly available media is now created by people who understand little of the professional standards and practices for media.
Clay Shirky's essay Does the Internet Make You. He uses a lot of surveys and test. Since starting to use the Internet his research techniques have changed. The question is, but the sort of things we use it for. In the essay,Does the Internet Make You Dumber, we can ask a simpler one: How do the growing. Does the internet make you smarter.
Clay Shirky responds to Nicholas Carr’s assertion that “ the Internet is making us dumber ” with his essay, “ Does the Internet Make You Smarter ” in the Wall Street Journal.