Googling...
A week long of stitting for two hours every evening and listening to the presentations made by my fellow classmates has finally come to an end. At the end of all of these, apart from filling up more of memory space in my head, I was left wondering what good has internet done in helping us study.
It is a popular perception, not completely wrong, that internet puts the world of information and knowledge right at your desktop. No doubt. You want to anything under the sun, you have google to help you out. Just key in a few relevant words, and you have it all right in front of you. Great. Fantastic. But there is a flip side too. All the information the google can bring to your desktop remains on the desktop. At the most, it might make its way into a powerpoint slide show, or on a 15 page word document. All through the process of Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. But never into our heads. This was evident in the presentations made today, where they could not answer any question satisfactorily. But no need to mention that all their presentations were fairly long, with trucks load of information.
If we were students about 20 years ago, and we had to do some self study and present them to the rest of the class, it used to be quite a task. One would have to spend hours in the library, searching for the right source of information, and then reading up pages and pages of literature to understand what is relevant to the chosen subject. One would have to start working weeks ahead of schedule. But then, all this effort was never a waste. We would by the very process of searching for the right material, would have gone through a greater amount of the 'unnecessary' stuff. In this, we would have had to understand what we read, before we could decide which was relevant and which wasn't. This meant, that we would have really learnt a great deal. We would have understood all that we read, with greater depth and insight, even if what we finally present was much lesser in quantity.
Can you see what technology has done? I am not actually justified in blaming the technology of google, because it is not google's fault if we fail to learn what we are supposed to. But, man is often a product of his environment and circumstances; and today the tech-filled environment in which we live doesn't seem to be doing as much good as it is thought to be. After all, information can never substitute knowledge.
It is a popular perception, not completely wrong, that internet puts the world of information and knowledge right at your desktop. No doubt. You want to anything under the sun, you have google to help you out. Just key in a few relevant words, and you have it all right in front of you. Great. Fantastic. But there is a flip side too. All the information the google can bring to your desktop remains on the desktop. At the most, it might make its way into a powerpoint slide show, or on a 15 page word document. All through the process of Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. But never into our heads. This was evident in the presentations made today, where they could not answer any question satisfactorily. But no need to mention that all their presentations were fairly long, with trucks load of information.
If we were students about 20 years ago, and we had to do some self study and present them to the rest of the class, it used to be quite a task. One would have to spend hours in the library, searching for the right source of information, and then reading up pages and pages of literature to understand what is relevant to the chosen subject. One would have to start working weeks ahead of schedule. But then, all this effort was never a waste. We would by the very process of searching for the right material, would have gone through a greater amount of the 'unnecessary' stuff. In this, we would have had to understand what we read, before we could decide which was relevant and which wasn't. This meant, that we would have really learnt a great deal. We would have understood all that we read, with greater depth and insight, even if what we finally present was much lesser in quantity.
Can you see what technology has done? I am not actually justified in blaming the technology of google, because it is not google's fault if we fail to learn what we are supposed to. But, man is often a product of his environment and circumstances; and today the tech-filled environment in which we live doesn't seem to be doing as much good as it is thought to be. After all, information can never substitute knowledge.
5 Comments:
dude u too seem to be falling prey to the good ol IITian habit of pointing fingers. "Man is a product of his environment and circumstances". Really? why is everyone content with falling in line. Where has individuality gone? I know (albiet a few) who actually search google to learn stuff, a close friend of mine is exteremly particular about doing assignments in person . Its the people who stand out of the crowd that count aint they? why not be the shepeard than the sheep?
Hope criticism is ok with you too...
and hey doodle wont work anymore. u gotta get another tag board.
That is why i used the word often, because it is not always the case. Unless you take measures not to be influenced by the environment totally, u will continue to be a product of the circumstance. How many people want to be the shepherd?
another thing, about which i want to make a post....is there something called as individuality, which has no influence of the environment? Isn't the so-called uniqueness in each one of us, is at least, partly because we all have different growing up environments. Marx, who was a great thinker, has said this. Many other social thinkers have also similar thoughts on what shapes a man's character. So, the question that I am raising is, is individuality an illusion? or is it real?
anyway, the purpose of this post is to highlight the negative side to a technology, whose positive sides alone have been highlighted.
I welcome criticisms. I love them....so do criticise a lot.
There is nothing wrong in googling what you don't know.I wd rather run a google on Alexander the great, than break my head and the librarian's and pore over heavy books.
But I would certainly not recommend a mere reproduction of content
when someone says that they are the product of circumstances it means that they have learnt from their situations and grown from it. It doesn't mean that since everyone is taking the easy way so do i. Did does the present circumstance really compel us to not to learn? we are used to taking the easy way. Why not do for a change what u think is right. When you do something different and maybe falter and then try again, that is when u can say that its the circumstance that has made what you are. your present arguement is totally misplaced.
@Pisku...
when someone says that they are the product of circumstances it means that they have learnt from their situations and grown from it.
I am not disputing what you said, but adding more points to it. Do we not always learn? whether it is at a conscious or unconscious level, we always have something that stays with us in our memory, with every experience. The collective sum of all these memories of experiences is the knowledge we gain out of them. This process of learning from experience happens at unconscious levels more than at conscious levels. That way, we always learn, and always continue to grow.
As for doping the right thing, I agree with you. I believe that on should always do the right thing, and not just the thing that we think is right. This means we have to know what is right, which is not very easy to know.
I get the feeling that we are not understanding each other correctly here, because at least from my side, I can tell you that you have probably misunderstood a bit, but then, I wouldn't be surprised if I am guilty of the same crime. :)
I will make another post about these some other time.
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