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My *Fast Company* article, and no Google is not making us stupid
It is an adaptation of one part of Create Your Own economy; excerpt:
It's a common complaint that the Web makes us more impatient, but most of us use it to track (or create) long-running stories and debates. I've been following the career of folk-rock star Roger McGuinn for more than 30 years, and now I use the Web for that. If anything, the essence of Web life is that we are impatient to discover the next installment in our planned programs of very patient long-term interest. That's a kind of impatience we can be proud of, just as a mother might be impatient to receive a call from her teenage daughter away at college. It's a sign of caring and commitment, not superficiality.
Here is the link and full article.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 25, 2009 at 07:20 AM in Books, Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
I've checked six times since 8:25 and still no new MR posts!
Posted by: anon at Jun 25, 2009 8:35:28 AM
It's only anecdotal, of course, but I think Google is making us stupid. Not me, or Tyler, or probably anyone who reads MR. But society, yes. I get the impression that a lot of the blogging commentariat suffers a substantial availability bias in making judgements about society.
I teach 16-18 year olds in the UK, and the students coming to me are getting stupider, I think. Tyler follows the career of Roger McGuinn, but he does it by reading things, and using the web to find those things he reads, and help him filter through information. I think the impatience in this is a bit of a red herring. I'm sure he doesn't just use the first page of google, like teenagers increasingly do. And often, I really do mean the first page of google - not even the pages linked to therein. If the answer to a poorly constructed, over-specific search isn't instantly accessible, they often assume it's not there. I have to beat this out of them, and convince them that they might have to read something, despite the power of the internet. I have students who have prentensions of going to the top universities here in the UK (and according to their results, have a chance), who have to be persuaded to read books and develop the ability to think reflectively.
So, is google and the internet making us stupid? No, when the "us" is people who read blogs like this, or older, wiser heads who now have unprecendented access to lots of information which they know how to use. But yes, if the "us" is the next generation of current teenagers.
Though all this depends on your definition of stupid, of course. Maybe I'm just old, but I do so wish my students read a bit more.
Posted by: AndrewUK at Jun 25, 2009 11:16:23 AM
"Someday we'll gain the tools to measure these new benefits." Let's hope not; once there is a number attached someone will harness leviathan to change that number.
Posted by: Harkins at Jun 25, 2009 12:23:16 PM
if google isn't making us stupid, what is? daylight savings time? chlorinated water?
Posted by: babar at Jun 25, 2009 12:45:12 PM
I look forward to your book Tyler.
We always wondered what we'd do when 'we', collectively or as individuals had enough materially.
I think that the absence of a clear answer to that question kept many people engaged in consumption beyond the point that it became redundant.
Well, now we know.
Posted by: Tom at Jun 25, 2009 12:48:04 PM
Google does make society dumber. Political debates have become far less in depth and reflective, moving instead to "Hope and Change" and "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less." Kids are conditioned to go to Spark Notes and Google to get quick and concise answers for tests, but every question has an answer which is short, concise, and wrong.
Posted by: MW at Jun 25, 2009 12:50:05 PM
Agree with AndrewUK. Google offers easy access to "information". Beyond utility or convenience, information will not drive us forward.
Younger adults celebrate having a command of information, but they seem to have far less interest in attaining true "knowledge" - a real command and mastery of a subject.
When I give younger coworkers intellectual challenges, the kind ripe for creativity and new insight, they are quick to spit back what they have "found" on the web. They seem surprised when I ask them for their own, well-reasoned take.
Why bother to really learn something when they can simply Google it?
Posted by: MNels at Jun 25, 2009 1:56:03 PM
When I saw the first search engines coming into use, I knew this was the beginning of the end. I said right off that there was no way I was getting sucked into this vortex of intellectual decay. So, I still insist on sending & receiving all my posts via my liveryman. Sure, it takes longer, but the wait builds character, and ensures that the information is of a high quality.
In fact, I have sent my man by horse out with this very note written on parchment, for Professor Cowen to dissemenate to his most respected colleagues for their consideration. But, I figured that the only way the masses of ignorant proles would see it was if it was posted on their infernal "internet". So I have included it here, also.
Posted by: kebko at Jun 25, 2009 2:18:42 PM
I agree with Tyler that Google is not making us dumber - but it is giving us an oportunity to delay (perhaps permenantly) becoming smarter. Like any tool, it's open to use & abuse.
Posted by: nick at Jun 25, 2009 6:14:19 PM
Is there any topic that Tyler Cowen will not write about for money?
I keep a rough list of non-econ mags where Cowen published lately with intention never spend a second of my time on those mags.
If they hire an essentially random person to write for them, how good could they be?
Posted by: Mick at Jun 25, 2009 7:11:54 PM
Bravo, kebko. MNels and AndrewUK, did you read the link Tyler posted in the entry after this, about why teenagers read better than "you" do?
Posted by: Curt Fischer at Jun 26, 2009 1:43:51 AM
Carl, I did read that article, and it says pretty much nothing.
My main point is that the internet, new media etc are transforming, and despite kebko's satire, brilliant innovations (I wouldn't be here otherwise). I can fully believe some classes of books are doing well - but there's nothign to say that this is not a) Adults reading books marketed at Young Adults (as the update says) and b) some teenagers reading more, which could easily be accompanied by most reading less.
Posted by: AndrewUK at Jun 26, 2009 6:04:52 AM
The piece reminded me a little of Schelling's The Mind as a Consuming Organ. I wonder how much he influenced these ideas. I know TC is a fan.
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