Comments on: Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?

By: Stupid, Addicted, or Just Avoidance/Resistance? â€¢ Mercs LLC

Stupid, Addicted, or Just Avoidance/Resistance? â€¢ Mercs LLC — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:59:36 +0000

[...] Stupid, Addicted, or Just Avoidance/Resistance? By Wayne Buckhanan on July 7th, 2010 Ryan Healy recently wrote a couple articles that came to mind today: Why People are Addicted to Info-Products Is the Internet Making Us Stupid? [...]

By: Mouli Cohen

Mouli Cohen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:58:57 +0000

Well the internet makes us more multitasker but it is true that it divides our attention. It also lead to addiction because it's a virtual reality world that somehow absorb our aspirations and what if's.

By: PerryD

PerryD — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 03:00:28 +0000

The multitasking action the Internet and our connectedness allows actually rewires our brains into a disorganized mess.

Ryan hit on the solution. Concentrate on one thing at a time. And you'll rewire your brain to concentrate on one thing at a time.

By: Joe Fryar

Joe Fryar — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:37:29 +0000

Ryan,
It's totally about limits! Limit yourself to say thirty minutes reading the “news” of the day, focus on your tasks at hand, take a break, read some more, then refocus. Lots of good ideas come from reading just the headlines. I break by actually reading a physical fiction book. Thanks for all the food for thought!

By: Jonathon Weston

Jonathon Weston — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:36:07 +0000

Totally agree Ryan. I came to this very conclusion a few months ago. The hard part is actually disconnecting the modem & leaving it off.

The availability of so many other opinions is also hard to resist sometimes. “I wonder what Google has about idea x” is what I've relied on for years. My own creativity and problem solving has no doubt suffered as a result… or maybe those grey hairs really are a sign of something… ;-)

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:57:33 +0000

I don't know about making us stupid in general. I think it depends on what you're using the internet for. I know many people who use it for research and because there is so much more information in one place, these people have increased their knowledge. On the flip side, I know a lot of people who aimlessly surf and in turn don't really gain anything by it.

That being said, I do think the internet can be a distraction. I find myself distracted by it many times and have learned to just turn it off during my heavy working hours.

By: John Deck

John Deck — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:14:20 +0000

For those of us prone to ADHD, the Internet is all its forms is a major source of distraction. I have the default page on my browsers set to blank. If I did not, every time I went to use a browser there is a good chance some bit of news will catch my eye, and bingo its ten, fifteen minutes later and I have completely lost my train of thought.

To the degree that the Internet has replaced TV as the great pacifier, yes it is a dumbing down effect. To the degree that it becomes the endless source of distraction and diversion, then in some ways even worst.

John Deck

By: ianbrodie

ianbrodie — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:55:49 +0000

Ugh. I suffer from this, I really do.

I know it's not good for me. but like millions of others, face with the choice of spending time alone with my thoughts and whipping out my iphone and checking email/twitter/my website stats – I usually choose the latter.

Ian

By: John Lenaghan

John Lenaghan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:40:51 +0000

I just opened my email to look something up and saw your email about this post Ryan. It caught my eye, I clicked through and read it, now I don't remember what I was looking for. So if the internet isn't to blame, does that mean I can blame you? :-)

I don't think it's just the lack of boundaries on the internet, I think it's the easy availability of information in many forms. I've got a pile of books on my desk, of which I'm halfway through 3 or 4 and the rest are tempting me to crack them open before I finish the others.

This glut of information was never so easily available in the past. The internet just compounds it by making it even easier and faster to find stuff.

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:04:10 +0000

This page is all squiffy…