MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

In his infamous essay, “Why Google is Making us Stupid,” and his subsequent book, The Shallows, Nicholas Carr indicts the Internet as a device designed to reward distractions and surface engagement at the expense of focused reading and deep analysis. The reaction to his work from the ‘internet’ was largely dismissive: trolling rants based on a love of the Web rather than a close examination of his argument, research, and reflective perspective. While Google isn’t making us stupid (a clever title that sensationalized his actual point), the question concerning the Internet’s affect on our thought processes and attention spans is an important one, especially when examining millennial at the Undergraduate level.

For an assignment in a social media course, millennial undergraduates, largely categorized as ‘always connected’, were asked to read selections of Nicholas Carr’s work “locked away in a room with no distractions at all (no electronic media of any kind, no food, etc.).” Students were encouraged to take notes, but only with pen/pencil and paper. Finally, they were required to write a reflection essay that connected their reading and writing experience to the assigned readings.

The current paper reflects on the value of meta-cognitive exercises and highlights specific student responses and lessons from the previous example.