Artifact #3: Internet and Deep Thinking

This video was about the effect of the use of technology, mainly the internet, on the ability of people to use their deeper thinking processes.  The speaker, Nicholas Carr, talked largely on the point that as we are becoming more adapted to multitask from being on the internet all the time, that people are starting to have trouble concentrating on one thing for a longer time.  Carr gave a personal example of when he was reading a book.  He said that when he sat down to read, he could only get a couple of pages into it and then he felt disracted and had to go check his email and surf the web. 
Carr gave several examples aabout how technology has made people not have to think as much.  Before the clock was invented, time was based on people's natural instinct.  They has to think about it and come up with a thought of what time it was.  Now, all we have to do is look at the clock and it tells us what time it is, no thinking involved.  With modern technology, there is a constant line of interuption.  If you surf the web, everywhere you go there are constantly ads and pop ups.  Businesses advertise almost anywhere it is possible.  If you stream a video online, there will be an ad or commercial that you have to watch before your video.  When most people use the internet, they are multitasking.  They will constantly have multiple windows open at the same time and will switch back and forth. 
In the video, Carr said that people using the internet will check their email up to 40 times a hour.  This is a big distraction for people.  All these distractions have been causing a decrease in deep thinking processing.  People are not having to look at one thing and pay attention for a long period of time.  The internet allows them to access what they want when they want to.  Carr said that since the brain is constantly developing throughout  persons life, then when we don't practice concentrating on something for a long time, we lose the ability to do so.  As people continually are doing more and more multitasking, they become worse at long term things. 
People run into a problem with technology sometimes though.  There is a large amount of people that have to use the internet for their job.  They have to be contacted constantly and that is a very quick way to get a hold of somebody.  One last thing that Carr talked about was the possibility of losing deeper emotions.  He said the fact that people are not thinking as much may cause people to lose the ability to get these deep emotions.
I think that Carr has a very strong argument in this video.  The internet is becoming such a large part of people's life that have access to it.  People use the internet for a huge variety of tasks, so it is hard to get away from it.  I agree that people are losing some of the ability to concentrate for a long time on one thing.