Is Google Making Us Stupid?
In the cover story for the July/August issues of The Atlantic, Alan Carr offers the essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”Read it Carr reflects on the changes to culture and intelligence that may be influenced by the easy access to information fueled by the internet search engine.
I personally think that Google is a powerful tool that an educated person can leverage to access data easily. Its danger is that the democratization of research elevates the need for discernment and critical thinking on the part of the user of the Internet. This may be precisely the problem with the Google generation. Google offers information overload without providing the concomitant ability to interpret the data.
The implication for missional leaders is that we need to serve as interpreters rather than merely another source of information. I can remember one of my own professors once saying, “Exegesis is not important; it’s indispensable.” He of course was talking about biblical exegesis or interpretation. His maxim can be generalized for the Google generation and those of us who serve it: Interpretation is not important; its indispensable.”
Back in 2006, I wrote “Images of a Paradigm Shift: From Dispensers of Information to Interpreters.” In it I reflect on the need for interpreters. Check it out.
What do you think?
I planned on blogged something about that article too.
What I found fascinating, in addition to what you bring out here, is the affect of the medium on the development of our brains–that screens, links, and articles chopped up in bits designed to be read quickly or in multiple sittings affect the way our brain works is good reason for taking his article seriously.
So, to press along the point you make (which he does if I recall correctly), interpretation is the best end, not encyclopedic knowledge, so how might we use the modern tool of the internet for our purposes? What sorts of practices would best suit our purposes as interpreters of material and not merely consumers of it?
I think the question his essay most invites is: What sort of healthy skepticism (if any) ought to guide our use of this medium?
Thanks for blogging this, I’ve been thinking about since I read it a couple of weeks ago.
Hi Guy,
Thank you for your adding to the conversation.
I suspect that we will need to address how we do “Christian education” within communities of faith. The quality of the material needs to grow exponentially from where it currently resides.
Perhaps we need to shift to a more missional approach.