April 12, 2012
Memory Blog
In chapter nine of The Shallows Carr brings up an argument regarding memory and memorization. He again tries to personify the Internet as an all powerful being, exerting control over anyone who uses it. The Internet is inanimate. This person is exerting the control. However, Carr tries to claim, “there’s a problem with our new, post-Internet conception of human memory. It’s wrong” (Carr 182). Well, I think, Carr is wrong. Human memory is still in tact.
If the Internet has had any influence on human memory, it has only affected that of lazy people. Carr argues that the Internet acts as an outside source to house knowledge and that therefore people choose not to memorize things because it is easily accessible on the net. This may be true to an extent, but I contradict this statement in saying that the same can be said for a book. Why memorize the words on a page if that book is always going to be there? The answer lies in interest and need. If the person needs or wants to know the information than the said person will commit the knowledge to memory whether it comes from the Internet or a book. I emphasize the person because it is not the Internet that is controlling the interests of the person.
Later on in the chapter, Carr describes the differences between short-term and long-term memory. It is as if he believes that the Internet is changing the way the brain forms memories. This isn’t true. That process will remain the same. Short-term memories are transformed into long-term memories only when the person continually rehearses or repeats the piece of information. Carr argues that the “influx of competing messages that we receive whenever we go online not only overloads our working memory; it makes it much harder for our frontal lobes to concentrate our attention on any one thing. The process of memory consolidation can’t even get started” (Carr 194). My argument is that it would never get started if the information wasn’t of any importance to the person. So again I emphasize the person in my argument. It all rests upon what the person wants.
I agree with your blog post, Julia. I think that Carr is wrong when he says that the internet has caused people to choose not to memorize stuff. I also think that the human memory is still in tact. I also think that your point about the person controlling the internet rather than the internet controlling the person is such a strong point that dissproves Carr's whole book.
ReplyDeleteMichelle Salvati