Cellphones and internet access have been current issues in Methodist University ever since they became a big thing among the students. All students in there have an urge to call their parents, but the school won’t let them. The school won’t even let the students access to information from the internet even if it concerns their studies. This has created unrest and turmoil in the school compound as the students feel that internet access is significant to their studies and generally as well. In their opinion, the Internet has proved to be an essential part of modern society mainly due to its over-reliance on providing information in a faster way. It provides remedies in the attempt to solve and give solutions to real-life needs and problems by making information easily available to anyone’s disposal. However, the school should not let students have internet access in school as recent studies and researchers have reported several effects of the internet and technologies on human intelligence by basing their results and arguments on real-life examples.
As noted in the Google effect by Genevieve Roberts, these effects are negatively Affecting the human intelligence capacity while others have positive effects on our lives and intelligence. In modern society, most people are suffering from digital amnesia, which means people cannot retain most of the information obtained from internet search engines.
The internet has introduced the mindset of “the internet knows everything” among the students, so there is no need to store or retain information in our brains. As noted in the Kaspersky lab by Dr Maria Wimber, “the Google effect” only makes us good at finding information on the internet than remembering that answer. After studying and researching the “Google effects,” the reports examined have provided information to back up my previous stance which I had argued that the internet is making us dependent and, therefore, less intelligent. The information provided by the internet should be making us smarter and more intelligent, but instead, it is making us more dependent and less intelligent.
Previously, it was found that the students in the school were using the internet to find and acquire solutions and information, after which they did not retain all the relevant information of the answer given hence giving the school a solid reason to ban internet use. After researching through the search engines and obtaining the relevant information, and solving the current question or situation, the internet gives the option not to memorize all that information obtained since when in case you will ever need that information again, it will always be readily available on the internet. In this generation, the students always store their important information in digital forms where they can retrieve it and access it at any time without the burden of remembering the exact details. For example, most learners in the university use their phones to set reminders or important dates rather than storing this information in their brains and remembering it themselves. The students are constantly using their gadgets to search for information and answers. This total dependence on the internet all the time has minimized our knowledge and information storage capacity in our brains because we know we can get back on the internet and look for that same information if we need it again and therefore making us less intelligent (Carl and Nicholas 84-89).
Let’s all agree on this, in general, Internet access is available in almost everywhere we are, and therefore people lose human interactions. Google search engine offers a gateway with all the answers you need, and there is no need to consult other people, and by doing so, google hinders human interactions. Gone are the times when we used to consult older people on matters which required experienced persons to give their opinions and now you can find anything without involving anyone and therefore establishing a consultation barrier between people. Newly released gadget with internet access has been widely used by the young, especially teenage students, to distract them from other people. For example, we see parents at a restaurant give their children phones or iPad to keep them distracted by streaming videos or playing games instead of connecting with them. The internet has replaced human consultation with online information, which this internet information is not always accurate, and it can mislead students and expose them to bad decisions.
Imagine a situation where all the students are allowed to access the internet at any time; the students will not take time to think critically and analyze information on their own. The Internet is one place where information is uploaded or accessed from the entire world. There are obviously both right information and wrong information for the content you have searched. The internet consists of many websites by which each one produces information pertaining to the question you have searched for. The possibility of this solution being accurate or wrong is proportionate, and some even information has a high percentage possibility of being wrong due to the unlimited uploading of information to the internet.
Even though the internet has solutions and information we need, the over-dependence of the internet to provide this information is making more students less intelligent since they just observe the information but do not memorize or retain it. We know if the same information is needed at another time, it will be available in a few seconds. The students do not take time to analyze a question and do depth research, but rather they just Google the question and solutions appear. Information from the internet can be false or true, so people should choose wisely which information to base their decision on. In a society where most teenagers’ studies and careers have been ruined by over-dependence on the internet, all schools should follow Strathmore’s idea of restricting internet access in an attempt to save the future generation’s intellectual capacities.
Reference
Anderson, Janna Quitney, and Lee Rainie. “Does Google make us stupid.” Retrieved June 7 (2010): 2011.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google making us stupid?.” Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 107.2 (2008): 89-94.
