Is Continued Learning from the Internet Effective?

The aim of this assignment was to provide a case about how the internet affects learning, intelligence, memory, attention, and thought. The paper is based on a response to a question posed by Nicholas Carr: Is Google brainwashing us? In the task, I argue that the internet can not be used indefinitely for studying because of the many detrimental effects it has on students. What I am proud of about this piece of writing is that I have learned and understood how the internet, with continued long usage, can affect my process of reading, thinking, learning and memory. The piece of writing gave me the chance to undertake research which is attributed to my personal experience in using the internet.

The main challenges I faced in completing the assignment is that finding the proper sources to provide relevant information on the topic was hard. Also, since the internet has a wide number of positive effects on education, obtaining and understanding the adverse consequences which are attributed to using the internet in learning was hard. Moreover, since I am a fan of using the internet in learning, noting down adverse impacts of the web especially on education without biasing the information was a challenge.

The sort of feedback I would want from the instructor in this assignment would be on my points to support my position in claiming that the internet is not sufficient in learning, my construction of these points and my general essay outline. I would also want the instructor to provide me with the feedback on whether the arguments were well constructed and what I would do to improve on the same in the future assignments.

Introduction

Since the development of computers, the learning process has become easier than ever before with most of the materials for reading accessible from online databases and websites. Many learners are glued to the screens of their computers searching for information that is helpful in working through their assignments and academic tasks. However, the use of the internet and computers to learn has been questioned of its effectiveness. Evidence has shown that, despite the web sources offering fast and reliable materials for learning, the continued use of the same affects the normal cognition of people. More specifically, extended usage of the internet negatively affects the learning process, memory, knowledge, concentration, and thinking. The use of the web continuously in education, in my opinion, is not efficient and it leads to detrimental effects on the person using it.

No deeper Understanding of Information

The internet is composed of a variety of information from various sources which have information about particular fields of study or interests. However, with the continued use of the internet to learn, it becomes difficult to understand and comprehend vital information. According to Carr, Nicholas (2), the internet has links that direct the search to accurate information that is needed for a particular study and hence the individual undertaking the study fails to dig deeper for information, thereby having only a vague understanding of what they have learned.

Statistics which are taken from research websites also show that learners merely peruse and skim through articles and journals in search for specific information rather than reading through these items to have a deeper understanding of the information published (INTEXT). From a personal experience, I have found out that when researching for information, I target the specific details of what I am in search for and do not consider most of the information leading me to same. Since skimming for information is more prominent, a deeper understanding of information learned cannot be accomplished.

Retention of Knowledge is Low

According to Carr, Nicholas (3), the internet is composed of materials that are educational and those which are primarily for entertainment purposes. While reading, it has been noted that most people are distracted by the entertainment materials such as music and advertisements on the web. As such, retaining the information that has been learned becomes a problem, and they only remember a small portion of what they have learned. Moreover, continued use of the internet reduces how much information that can be comprehended within time.

According to Carr, Nicholas (3), readers using the web hop from different sources of learning materials and thus their reading is primarily based on small paragraphs. The same has happened to me in many cases. I have experienced the same case in my learning since I read short paragraphs of information and are distracted by advertisements and other entertainment media. In this regard, I do not comprehend much of what I learn and retaining the knowledge is low. The continued use of the internet as a source for learning, therefore, affects the retention of information.

Knowledge Obtained is Minimal

With the web materials for learning being in variety, learners using the online databases have a vast pool of information to research from. The learners, therefore, skim through different sources trying to obtain accurate information regarding the topic of investigation, thereby reducing the amount of knowledge gained by the reader. The process of skimming through these learning sources provides little information which is particular to the research being conducted.

Statistics taken from websites containing articles and journals show that readers in the sites skim through different paragraphs from the literature sources instead of reading the same thoroughly (Ravizza, Susan, David Z. Hambrick, and Kimberly M. Fenn 110). Moreover, the statistics show that different users in these sites save documents to read later, but they do not read them later. I have experienced the same scenario in the process of conducting my research. I tend to read through articles fast, and mostly I do not read the whole article. Through the skimming and lack of reading the articles in full, I do not obtain much information, and thus the knowledge gained is minimum.

Concentration is Easily Lost

Continued use of the internet in learning has been attributed to the loss of focus in the process of learning. Majority of the web sources are filled with advertisements, and thus they limit the concentration span for learning. Also, Carr, Nicholas (4), states that the concentration of individuals using the internet to learn for long is highly reduced. He suggests that these researchers are not able to read a series of paragraphs for long and understand them adequately.

The learners, due to continued use of the internet, are unable to concentrate on reading large articles and books which contain significant texts. This leads to the lack of enough knowledge to be learned and hence limiting the information obtained. Concentration is an important aspect of the education process, and the lack of the same deters the learning of information from the internet. I have experienced the same scenario in that I am unable to read long articles on the web, which limits the information I obtain from these sources.

The mind is less engaged

According to Ravizza, Susan M., David Z. Hambrick, and Kimberly M. Fenn (112), information which is available from internet sources have ready information which is specific to particular research outcomes expected. As such, the mind is not engaged in decoding and understanding information, which hence limits the amount of knowledge gained. Moreover, the brain is not involved in comprehending the information read as the same is explained in the articles. I have experienced a similar scenario in my life experience while researching. Most of the information which is I found in the internet sources was accurate to the research and thus my mind was not engaged in any element of learning. Therefore, using the internet sources results in less engagement of the mind.

Conclusion

The use of the internet and computers to learn has been questioned of its effectiveness. Evidence has shown that, despite the web sources offering fast and reliable materials for learning, the continued use of the same affects the normal cognition of people. Statistics which are taken from research websites show that learners merely peruse and skim through articles and journals in search for specific information rather than reading through these items to have a deeper understanding of the information published. Through the skimming and lack of reading the articles in full, I do not obtain much information, and thus the knowledge gained is minimum. Continued use of the internet in learning has been attributed to the loss of focus in the process of learning. Also, the mind is not engaged in decoding and understanding information, which hence limits the amount of knowledge gained. The use of the web continuously in education, in my opinion, is not efficient and it leads to detrimental effects on the person using it.

Works Cited

Carr, Nicholas. Is Google making us stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains. Vol. 1. July 2008. From http://repositorio.minedu.gob.pe/bitstream/handle/123456789/3087/Is%20Google%20Making%20us%20Stupid.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Ravizza, Susan M., David Z. Hambrick, and Kimberly M. Fenn. “Non-academic internet use in the classroom is negatively related to classroom learning regardless of intellectual ability.” Computers & Education 78 (2014): 109-114. From https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5c81/72952ef420233ba5f7411d418e96c5e52522.pdf