I just read the two great articles in the WSJ, written by Nicholas Carr and Clay Shirkey. First, Nicholas Carr hypothesized that the advent of the internet and our use of it has made us "shallower" thinkers. This is because we no longer focus on one thing (like when we are reading), but are constantly multitasking online. He references a number of experiments that show when our attention is split, we retain less information. Therefore we understand less, and are worse critical thinkers and problem solvers.
On the other hand Clay Shirkey counters by claiming the internet is actually making us smarter. He hypothesizes that every medium, at its advent, has always been blamed for making the younger generation "dumber". He showcases examples from books to TV. The advent of each of these mediums has basically improved and updated how we think and reason. Everyone adjusts to the newest medium and then that becomes the norm.
Both authors make valid points, and I am inclined to agree with both arguments in both articles, because I think they are not mutually exclusive. We may be more apt to multitask and process more ideas and distractions at once, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. This may be the new way of thinking in the future, especially as Web 2.0 becomes more commonplace. Mark Zuckerburg and Jeff Bezos (in the video a conversation with Amazon.com CEO) both strike me as the type of CEO's that have a very small attention span, multitask, and are "shallow" thinkers, but this has served them well as they started their internet companies. Maybe this is the successful thinking of the future?
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