Internet can easily overwhelm our ability to think and reason

Is the Internet dumbing us down and making us lazier? Or is it empowering the masses by giving access to more information?

Will customers drive miles to buy a product when they can simply click on eBay and the product will be delivered to their house? Will students carry a pile of books from the library when they know the verb “Google” and the term “Wikipedia”? Will you pull out your pen and use your whole hand to write an essay, worrying your handwriting is not neat at all, when you can just slightly move your fingers and submit a perfectly written (in terms of handwriting) essay via the Internet? Most likely not. At least right now, I am typing these words instead of writing them. 

As the most forward-looking media now days, Internet improves the pace and the quality of our life in so many ways, but simultaneously, the fact that it is driving people lazier is also undeniable. Physically, people are doing less work and exercises because doing so is inconvenient, and plus more and more activities can be done at home. Further more, the Internet will very likely diminish human’s ability to think creatively and independently. Since Internet is a free platform for netizens to communicate, people can find all kinds of “knowledge”, whether it is valuable information, biased opinions, extreme assertions, superficial comments… and more. However, instead of using Internet as an extra help to start one’s thinking, many people tend to “choose” or “follow” one of the millions of thoughts on the Internet. Even more sadly, many people seem unaware of their changes from thinking independently to solely rely on other people’s ideas. They feel like they have gained new knowledge, but their lazy behaviors more or less lead to poorly constructed thoughts and views. I would argue that Internet is a new form of assimilation: unlike the children in residential schools who were forced to adapt a new culture, people now days choose to be assimilated, which is harmful for especially the young generations who have not yet developed their own value systems. Indeed, it is ironic how sometimes access to more information and databases does not lead to greater knowledge and deeper understanding but the opposite.

This is a group of creative photography by the French photographer Antoine Geiger. He took the photos on ordinary streets of Paris, and describes the use of technology and Internet as a type of “self-alienation” that “has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as aesthetic pleasure of the first order. ”

The idea Geiger conceptualized through his art work is similar to my point: many people’s obsession for  the Internet turns them lazy to the degree that face-to-face socialization is becoming a rare act to do. The variety of information on the Internet can easily overwhelm our ability to think and reason.