Google, a.k.a The World's #1 Distraction Engine

All the books we read over this summer were pretty insightful. I want to talk more about The Shallows, more specifically, the chapter entitled “The Church of Google”. Carr brings forth many interesting facts explaining how the search engine determines the prominence of ads by the number of users who click on it, and how the website promotes the speedy skimming of information. But one statement he made really caught my eye. According to Carr, “the last thing the company wants is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. Google is, quite literally, in the business of distraction.” (157) This made some questions form in my mind.  How often do we find the things we search on Google appear as ads on the websites the search engine directs us to? And, how many times do we see those same ads on our Instagram feed? The things I searched on Google managed to make their way to my other forms of media. For instance, last year I started online drivers education. The day after I had registered for my course, all these ads compelling me to sign up for their driving schools and behind-the-wheel training showed up on my Instagram feed. Initially, I found it really peculiar, but now this sort of thing happens all the time. Sometimes I click on the different advertisements the app offers me, and I become distracted from what I was originally doing (scrolling through Instagram). I hope I'm not the only one who's noticed this. In the rest of The Shallows, we read about how the internet has impacted our brains. It’s stated in the book that “we’re in perpetual locomotion,” (168), meaning that were always shifting from one thing to the next, causing us to gradually lose our ability to focus on one thing at a time. Many people say this lack of attentiveness is a form of stupidity. It’s impossible to count the number of times I’ve heard “the internet makes you stupid” or “using social media makes people dumb”. Which brings me back to the first quote from Carr, Google is selling distraction. Our diminishing attention span, along with other things, is what has made Google worth over 100 billion dollars. What Carr says in his book makes a lot of sense, and it makes me wonder if there are any practical ways we can combat this “stupidity”. Of course, the internet is a valuable resource and will continue to be used by people across the world. Google is a handy resource when trying to define a word, or when searching for the cheapest online drivers education program. So how do we REALISTICALLY prevent distraction from consuming our attention spans?

Also, I just wanted to give you a piece of encouragement. Today I finished all of my homework for this course (finally!) and I encourage YOU to finish your work if you haven’t already. I know it may seem overwhelming, as I’ve had conversations with a lot of you about this topic. But don't give up! YOU CAN DO IT :)

-Aijah Johnson