A Quick Review

Although I may not willingly like to admit this, Carr has changed the way I feel about the Internet.  Not dramatically, but the Shallows has allowed me to explore the cognitive processes that are involved with using the Web and gaps in privacy.

I do appreciate that Carr's work was well researched.  His ideas were strongly supported.  "The Church of Google" was a chapter that exemplified this point perfectly.  After reading the chapter, I was thinking there was no way Google could be so iffy on privacy.  However, I started working in a computer science lab about a week later, and two of the lab members were talking about major flaws in Google's protective services.  I actually went back and re-read the chapter and saw that Carr is certainly well aware of things going on in the high-technology field.

It was hard for me to fully trust Carr's ideas because he seemed very one sided, though.  He barely mentioned any positive things that technology has done for us.  I can think of two examples off the top of my head.  1) Saving paper. Scientists constantly tell us that deforestation is a huge problem.  If we take away the tress, we take away this earth's major source of oxygen.  Digitalizing articles and books has allowed us to save paper.  2.) Saving lives.  Being connected allows for people to collaborate and help one another in unfortunate situations.  For example, students in the Virginia Tech shootings a few years ago were able to alert other students of the location of the gunman via texting. As much as technology may detract from focus, it has given us many opportunities for positivity, as well.

The world is overpopulated.  We have to rely on certain technologies to survive.  I do feel like there's room for the improvement when it comes to Internet.  We need to learn to control of "technological urges," however, there is a crucial need for the Internet and computers, and I think it would be best to learn to accept these technologies and embrace them properly starting at a young age.