Is google making us stupid?

I often wonder about this, what are the effects of copious internet reading? What the Internet is doing to our brains "..media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation."

And another good article referencing changes on brain function with regard to internet usage. I know there is often the tendency to romanticise the past over the present but.. Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?

Recommended Reading:

This book is stunning. Profound understanding of civilisation and its unsustainable course. The Final Empire: The Collapse of Empire and the Seed of the Future - by William Kötke. Available to read online at: http://www.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire/ "The crisis of the planet Earth is so profound that all of our lives will be caught up in it. Our lives will change because of it. Our lives will change because of the apocalyptic events happening now and the even greater dislocations to come. We cannot avoid these great trends of history but we can exercise awareness and skill in action in dealing with them. The tumult will be environmental and it will also be within the social body of civilization."

The americanization of mental illness

We may indeed be far along in homogenizing the way the world goes mad. "Nowhere are the limitations of Western ideas and treatments more evident than in the case of schizophrenia. Researchers have long sought to understand what may be the most perplexing finding in the cross-cultural study of mental illness: people with schizophrenia in developing countries appear to fare better over time than those living in industrialized nations." -New York Times Article

On this topic, a link to Sean Blackwell's thought provoking blog exploring his own experiences and interpretations of bi-polar. A favourite idea: a breakdown or a breakthrough?

to be connected..

To see the world in a grain of sand,
and to see heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hands,
and eternity in an hour.
-William Blake