Introduction
The use of the internet has been seen to be affecting the way we live and interact with one another. With the use of the internet, there has been a lot of interdependence on this media source. We are almost over relying on the information that we easily get from the internet. There is no longer independent thinking and reasoning. Everything that we need to know and get facts we get them from the internet. This makes it hard to reason and make independent research about issues. Google stand in as the reference for general internet technology. The concern that we make in this paper is the fact that the internet and digital technology makes our minds lazier by the day. This is something that has been an issue of concern for many people. This paper will focus on the way that Google and internet technology has made us stupid. We have been over relying on the internet too much (Carr, 2008).
Purpose
There is a need to investigate this subject because of the slow death of independent research. This subject is worth indulging and getting more information about because of the fact that there is so much use of internet and digital technology in everyday life. It is important to undertake a research about the extent in which internet technology can be used in the normal running of the internet. It is important to understand the extent in which internet has been used to manage and engage reasoning. This subject is also important due to the fact that research will be affected with more reliance on the internet and digital sources. There is a need to ensure that there is still ongoing research that will add to knowledge repository. With access to the internet, there is a tendency of people not to engage their brains in any matter that they are undertaking. This makes the research worth undertaking and suggests ways in which digital technology can be used and at the same time have the bran and independent research still being carried out.
Thesis
As the internet is used in many areas of our everyday lives, it is important to understand that our ability to undertake long research and read long narratives. This experience where our brains are being rewired everyday is a sure attempt to flatten our human experiences. The internet is becoming more accessible and more knowledge is being added to the internet information repository. This has had tremendous effects on the way in which we make use of our brains. The sector of research has also been affected as many researchers dependent on the internet to undertake their researches.
This paper will try to answer the following research questions:
- Does the use of the internet affect the quality of research?
- Do people over-depend on internet even for basic tasks that could be reasoned out?
- Does the internet affect the extent of engaging our brains independently?
Literature review
There has been research and attempts to understand the various researches that have been carried our concerning internet use and the effects of this trend. With the advent of the internet, there has been the change of the neural engagement of the brain. There has been the argument that thinking is no longer the way it used to be. The extent of thinking is no longer the way it used to be. Many researchers have found out that reading has changed. Before the advent of the internet, reading long books used to be interesting. This is no longer the case. This has changed because of the use of the internet. After few pages, we no longer get any interest in a narrative. This can be attributed to the use of the internet. The deep concentration on text that used to take place in the past is now becoming a struggle (Wolf, Barzillai, & Dunne, 2009).
Wolf, Barzillai, and Dunne (2009) argue that the contemporary society belongs to the dexterous and inventive minds. With the wave towards digitization and globalization, the Internet and application of social media is now a reality in almost every aspect of the daily living. For instance in the classroom situation, teachers have embraced the internet to even allowing students not good in text-based learning to use other means like videos. Internet and its application has since ceased to be a chapter of the computer class syllabus to a universal tool often used in the learning process, a communication channel and most importantly a management tool used in analysis and evaluation of different issues (Carr, 2010).
Internet research is growing more popular. Research shows that the emergence and adoption of the internet in the education sector has had great impacts on the learning process. A study of current statistical literature on the use of internet indicates that 93% of students in the institutions of higher learning entirely depend on the internet for their research. This is true despite the availability of such literature in the libraries, whose use is gradually diminishing as a result of increased internet use. In as much as most professors are against use of the internet as a resource for conducting academic research, most students depend on the search engines to solve their problems and mostly on Wikipedia despite it being an unreliable source of integral information.
Libraries are a better source of information compared to the net. According to the research done at the Bar-Ilan University in Israel, the source material found in three major libraries, The United States Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, and the British Library shows that there is a decrease in quality, quantity and general representation of information in the results of the Internet search. The users did not receive balanced information if they based their research on the net.
The lead researcher Dr. Schwartz notes in the Journal of Internet research that the information found on the Internet are generally biased with a tendency towards science subjects and popular information alone.
According to Prensky (2009), the popular belief among many students and users that the Internet is the home of everything is deceiving. The Internet has a vast source of information contained in over 4 billion different publicly accessible websites. However it is surprising to find that only 6% of this content contains educational material. Considering the average life span of a web page to be almost three months, most of the material found in these sites are not indexed by the search engines and remain invisible to the normal user. Google for instance has indexed less than 20 % of all the available pages.
Further research indicates that faculties that apply social media in administering their courses sum up to 90%. In every 10 classes taking place in the faculties, at least 8 of them make full use of video classes. Away from the classroom, a good number of the learning institutions use the internet for various other purposes. For example, 85% of the admission boards have been known to use the internet to relay information to students who qualify for these courses. This is done mostly on the social media and also on blogs using videos (Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner, 2011).
The solution to the issues that come from the internet effects could be undertaken by introducing policies that can be used to guide students and researchers about Google search. The strain that is given to research efforts can be reduced and enhanced by having students have their researches from scholarly and physical research. These policies could restrict the indulgence of the students on the internet. This will restrain the students from over depending on the internet. It is important to understand the extent and the role that research has on knowledge.
Methodology
The research has been undertaken using literature review. There is a lot of information that has been obtained from the internet. The research will be undertaken from the various sources of the internet. The research instruments that will be used to get this information will be obtained from the various credible research portals on the internet. The data will come from the literature review. This is the method of data collection that the researcher will use to undertake the research. The various literatures regarding the project management and the development of mobile applications will be used to carry out the research. There are different researches which have been carried out in this field and this will enable the collection of data regarding this field. Data will be analyzed and checked using the various literatures and the scholarly work that has been carried out by different scholars. This will be a tangible source of information and data that will be used in this research. It is important to understand the environmental setup that the literature was carried out. The researcher will also ensure that the literature is relevant to the research. This will be undertaken by ensuring that the information comes from software and mobile software developments and how the project management techniques were used in the process.
The research tools that will be used to obtain useful data and information will be surveys. The surveys will be carried out online so that the internet users will be surveyed in search of the extent in which they are using the internet (Anand, 2005).
For the reliability of the instrument a pilot study will be done and test retest will be carried out. The examiner’s manual or technical manual for most tests will have information on the validity of the test. For the validity of this instrument then I will consult expert’s supervisor and other research specialist at the university.
Analysis of the findings
There has been surfing and browsing for most academicians. There has been more time spent over the internet. Information search has been done online. The internet has been the godsend for most people as they use them to carry out a lot of research. Google searches, quick links to some informative sites and the easy ways in which the internet offer information is a contributing factor.
For many students, the internet has become a medium where information and knowledge flows from. The advantages that come with access to this medium are advantageous and incredible information is now available. Google is making the use and access of this information easier. Google has been seen to supply the information that is used for thought. They have also been seen to shape the process of thinking. The process is the most important aspect of this research. In this aspect, Google and indeed the internet in general, has changed the effort that we give into thinking. Google has been chipping away the concentration capacity and contemplation.
Given the widespread of use of the internet by students and tutors, faculties have had to modify their curriculum adding up search engine use, SEO and online marketing as part of the coursework. With such a trend in the learning process, one is left to wonder if further shifts could still hold the original values and core purpose of education (Anand, 2005).
Conclusion
The extent in which internet use has been undertaken is alarming. If it is left uncontrolled, the degree of over-relying on the internet and Google search will affect the pace of getting new information. There should be strategies and measures taken to control the use of the internet in some aspects.
REFLECTION
The use of the internet has affected my effort to undertake my own research. This is a norm that I can attribute to the ease with which information is readily available on the internet. This trend has affected the extent of doing my own research. I can say that the internet is full of information and makes my research to be at a slow pace. It is the ease with which this information has affected the extent with which I carry out my own research.
The fact that anyone can publish a web page is alarming because no one can authenticate and validate the information in the Internet. There are a lot of unpleasant content on the web and although it makes up less than 1% it is easily available to the average user. This kind of distraction does not make the Internet a good place to conduct research. Wikipedia for instance is the most frequently visited website. The site has an ever-changing pool of information which only relies on the accuracy of the contributors. Most of the information is not cited and there is no way to clearly determine its source. It is thus very clear that while sites such as Wikipedia keep up to date information, it is making researchers increasingly lazy, unconvincing and keep on supplying inaccurate information. Before the internet, the real scenario of a classroom was within the confinement of a four walled room, with a bunch of students filling up the room to almost overflowing. Situations where more than twenty students were seen reading from a single textbook was just but a normal occurrence. Some could even go as far as climbing on their wooden desks just to get a good view of the book’s pages, leave alone its content. Speaking of education meant the long journey that some students had to take every morning and evening, to the furthest corner of the villages where the schools were mostly situated. A learning institution had a huge number of tired students, tired from the long distances that they had to travel and also that they had to rise up very early to help with the home chores before they could be released to attend to their studies. This is a real situation in the developing countries; which probably could be in existence to date in the most remote places. It is a reflection of the passion and will to gain education as the most precious of all gifts one could receive.
References
Anand, R. (2005). Internet education. New Delhi: International Scientific Publishers Academy.
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stupid? Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 107(2), 89-94.
Carr, N. (2010). What the Internet is doing to our brains. Raodshow..
Prensky, M. (2009). H. sapiens digital: From digital immigrants and digital natives to digital wisdom. Journal of Online Education, 5(3), 1-9.
Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science,333(6043), 776-778.
Wolf, M., Barzillai, M., & Dunne, J. (2009). The importance of deep reading. Challenging the Whole Child: Reflections on Best Practices in Learning, Teaching, and Leadership, 130.
