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Is Google Making Us Stupid?. Matt Gillis, Emily Poskrobko , Katie Siemianowski. Video Intro. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDvYIfl9IA. Net as a Universal Medium. Immediate access to rich stores of information Comes at a price. Marshall McLuhan.
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Is Google Making Us Stupid? Matt Gillis, Emily Poskrobko,Katie Siemianowski
Video Intro • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDvYIfl9IA
Net as a Universal Medium • Immediate access to rich stores of information • Comes at a price
Marshall McLuhan “Media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS_FwVI7Si4&feature=related
Staccato Quality • Freidman- quickly scanning short passages of text from many sources online • McLuhan- fight to stay focused on longer pieces of writing
“Skimming Activity” • University College London- study of online research habits • Hopping from one source to another • Rarely return to one already visited
Psychologists Say… • Maryanne Wolf (Tufts)- web reading puts efficiency and immediacy above all else • Weaken capacity for deep reading • Ability to interpret text and make mental connections is weakened
Effects on the… SQUIRREL! • James Olds- “The brain has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.” • Scattering attention span, diffusing concentration, can’t process information • Pop-up ads, shortening of articles, hyperlinks (websites cater to our short-attention spans)
Pancakes! • Pancake People: access to many websites, but don’t retain much information, don’t go in depth (result of skimming activity)
What Students Don’t Know • Research process- students overuse Google, misuse scholarly databases • 30 students interviewed- mentioned Google 115 times (twice as much as any other search engine) • Students not good at using Google, can’t build a search that produced good sources
Google (verb) • Google Defense: • More info to access • Faster understanding • More productive as thinkers
“Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.” -Nietzsche