Too much technology is a term that is rarely heard. However, with the Google Company’s release of Google Instant, many people are starting to agree with this idea. Google Instant is a new search enhancement of Google that permits users to see results as they type. In other words, this technology is showing us what we are thinking as and before we write it. It is estimated to save two to five seconds of time per search. The speed is faster then a regular Google search and you can now adapt your search until you get the words you are looking for. So what is the problem with this great technology?
Over the past fifteen years that the Internet has been in existence, our society has changed. Files are computed over the Internet, medical records are shared, and you can even tell where someone is located through GPS over the Internet. Now that the ability for the Internet to think is a reality, I now fear of technological domination. While I support the Internet and its ways to stimulate society through Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, I do not agree with it talking to my friends on Facebook for me. Google Instant is sufficient in its uses. I do agree that the smarter prediction it writes helps me, but I feel that with the recent advancements of the Internet that over time it will lead me to primarily rely on it.
Baroness Greenfield of Oxford University believes that Google Instant is a “climate change” type revelation and that the quality of people in the future might be threatened. She presents this by saying only time will tell if it is for the better or worse of humans. Google Instant though seems like it could threaten creativity and imagination. There are countless times that I have used a search engine and searched for one thing, but learned about other topics because my search was wrong. Google Instant would prevent this, but because it wasn’t hindered I learned more. Our future is formed off of our creativity and imagination, without our input of beliefs what does our future have in store?
Another issue presented is that of mind control and a person’s value of their mind. Nicholas Carr states “I fear that we have been too quick to assume that computers and the 'net are good for students". For people that want to have others think for themselves, this tool is great. For people like myself though, who want to think for themselves and draw visions in their mind and to think without the distractions of pop ups and videos playing on the side of websites, Google Instant is only a resource and not a necessity. To say that Google Instant is the sole reason for limiting our ability to think is bold and false, but it does not mean that it can’t be utilized and thought of in that way. The bigger picture is what Google Instant stands for and that is the Internet having the ability to have human thoughts. Our society has thrived in the past off of printed sources and it’s ability to teach us to develop our thoughts and to concentrate our minds by pure focus and paying attention. It’s not hard to think we can do it again; after all it was the human mind that created the Internet years ago.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/09/16/internet.brain.carr/index.html?iref=allsearch
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