Is the Internet changing the way we think?

In the aftermath of the shootings in Tucson, Arizona, President Obama encouraged Americans to reflect on the meaning of these events. But has technology impaired our ability to pause and deeply reflect as we once did? That’s what Washington Times writer Suzanne Fields suggested on Friday.

“The sound and fury that accompanied impotent political rage ought to give us pause,” Fields wrote. “After every public tragedy, we seek quick public solutions when what we need is thoughtful reflection. Reflection is harder when real time is measured by computer, and warp speed becomes value without content.”

Smart phones and other technologies may continually feed us with instant information, but they are not making us wiser, she wrote.

Speed, a process empty of meaning, has jumped to our highest value. Newspapers once competed to get the first “EXTRA!” on the street in the wake of great tragedy, and now seek speedier technology to get sensation on computer screens. Editors have only to hit the “send” button and millions devour the digital word. Ubiquitous cable-tv shouters deliver the “news” without even a pretense of fact-checking. Bloggers make up their own facts. Transcripts of television interviews reveal disorderly ideas put together in unstructured sentences. Opinions fly fast and loose, very loose.

Recently, author John Brockman wrote a book titled Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? He interviewed a varied group of 150 scientists, artists, writers, scholars and pundits. In a review of his book, the Wall Street Journal wrote: “One theme emerges frequently from enthusiasts and skeptics alike: Precisely because there are such vast stores of information on the Internet, the ability to carve out time for uninterrupted, concentrated thought may prove to be the most important skill that one can hone.”

The Internet, of course, has its place. But as with so many modern advancements, it can easily turn into a curse that dumbs down individuals and even destroys families.

Last Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal’s Elizabeth Bernstein quoted one expert who said, “Technology should be on the list of the top reasons why people divorce.” Some counselors are now advising families to go on a “tech cleanse.”

The Trumpet warned last fall that screens are ultimately refashioning our minds. “In many cases, this screen-induced overhaul of the mind is changing the way our brains work, the way we absorb and digest information, the quality of our thinking—and ultimately, the nature of our lives,” columnist Brad Macdonald wrote. For more information see “The Perils of Screen Addiction (and How to Beat It).”