I feel generally conflicted about Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” because it is in parts relatable and hypocritical. I found it kind of interesting that Carr himself admits that he can’t keep focus after two of three pages of an article, and his is longer than that (I didn’t think it was too long by any means, I just found it interesting that he isn’t adjusting his writing to fit the needs he himself has). While I understand his grief over the decline of deep-reading focus, I also found it pretentious. Even before the internet, there were still people that couldn’t focus on reading enough to eat through War and Peace, or just didn’t want to. The ability to sit and read and block things out doesn’t make one better than anyone else.

Still, my general attitude problem doesn’t detract from the parts of this article that I really related to. I also lose focus easily now, especially if my reading is on the internet. At one point a few weeks ago, I found myself reading a Buzzfeed listicle, with a show on Netflix playing in a background tab, checking twitter on my phone, all while the article I was supposed  to be reading sat “forgotten” in yet another background tab. So much for productivity. My attention span is shot, to be sure. I’m also afraid of artificial intelligence, like HAL or almost any other sci-fi example. I don’t necessarily fear it because I think I will change that shape of human existence, but I think it’s pretty creepy, so I related to Carr on that too.

In retrospect, I don’t really have a question, I just find that lately with the articles we’ve been reading about technology and literacy, I get defensive and confused. I feel like the general tone people take when writing about the modern advances and how they relate to literacy are very “woe is us” or “the future is here”, either way, both of these reactions are too dramatic for me. Is anyone else feeling this way, or am I just turning into a grouchy old person who is annoyed by the influence of newer technological advances?