Does the Internet Make You Dumber?

[A] The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: "To be everywhere is to be nowhere." Today, the Internet grants us easy access to unprecedented amounts of information. But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is also turning us into disrupted and superficial thinkers.

[B] The picture emerging from the research is deeply troubling, at least to anyone who values the depth, rather than just the velocity (速度), of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read traditional linear text. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate (镇定的) and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by e-mails, alerts and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle (尽力同时应付)many tasks are less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.

[C] The common thread in these disabilities is dispersing our attention. The richness of our thoughts, our memories and even our personalities hinges on our ability to focus the mind and sustain concentration. Only when we pay deep attention to a new piece of information are we able to associate it "meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory," writes the Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist (神经科学家) Eric Kandel. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts.

[D] When we’re constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to generalize the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our contemplating. We become mere signal-processing units, quickly shepherding disjointed bits of information into and then out of short-term memory.

[E] In an article published in Science last year, Patricia Greenfield, a leading developmental psychologist, reviewed dozens of studies on how different media technologies influence our cognitive abilities. Some of the studies indicated that certain computer tasks, like playing video games, can enhance" visual literacy skills", increasing the speed at which people can shift their focus among icons and other images on screens. Other studies, however, found that such rapid shifts in focus, even if performed adeptly, result in less rigorous and "more automatic" thinking.

[F] In one experiment conducted at Cornell University, for example, half a class of students was allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during a lecture, while the other had to keep their computers shut. Those who browsed the Web performed much worse on a subsequent test of how well they retained the lecture’s content. While it’s hardly surprising that Web surfing would distract students, it should be a note of caution to schools that are wiring their classrooms in hopes of improving learning.

[G] Ms. Greenfield concluded that "every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others. " Our growing use of screen-based media, she said, has strengthened visual-spatial intelligence, which can improve the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of simultaneous signals, like air traffic control. But that has been accompanied by "new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes," including "abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination." We’re becoming, in a word, shallower.

[H] In another experiment, recently conducted at Stanford University’s Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Lab, a team of researchers gave various cognitive tests to 49 people who do a lot of media multitasking and 52 people who multitask much less frequently. The heavy multitaskers performed poorly on all the tests. They were more easily distracted, had less control over their attention, and were much less able to distinguish important information from trivial.

[I] The researchers were surprised by the results. They had expected that the intensive multitaskers would have gained some unique mental advantages from all their on-screen juggling. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, the heavy multitaskers weren’t even good at multitasking. They were considerably less adept at switching between tasks than the more infrequent multitaskers. "Everything distracts them," observed Clifford Nass, the professor who heads the Stanford lab.

[J] It would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and cell phones. But they don’t. The cellular structure of the human brain, scientists have discovered, adapts readily to the tools we use, including those for finding, storing and sharing information. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. The cellular alterations continue to shape the way we think even when we’re not using the technology.

[K] The pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being "massively remodeled" by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Merzenich, now a professor emeritus at the University of California in San Francisco, conducted a famous series of experiments on primate brains that revealed how extensively and quickly neural circuits change in response to experience. When, for example, Mr. Merzenich rearranged the nerves in a monkey’s hand, the nerve cells in the animal’s sensory cortex quickly reorganized themselves to create a new" mental map" of the hand. In a conversation late last year, he said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the Internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be "deadly".

[L] What we seem to be sacrificing in all our surfing and searching is our capacity to engage in the quieter, attentive modes of thought that underpin contemplation, reflection and introspection. The Web never encourages us to slow down. It keeps us in a state of perpetual mental locomotion. It is revealing, and distressing, to compare the cognitive effects of the Internet with those of an earlier information technology, the printed book. Whereas the Internet scatters our attention, the book focuses it. Unlike the screen, the page promotes contemplativeness.

[M] Reading a long sequence of pages helps us develop a rare kind of mental discipline. The innate bias of the human brain, after all, is to be distracted. Our predisposition is to be aware of as much of what’s going on around us as possible. Our fast-paced, reflexive shifts in focus were once crucial to our survival. They reduced the odds that a predator would take us by surprise or that we’d overlook a nearby source of food.

[N] To read a book is to practice an unnatural process of thought. It requires us to place ourselves at what T. S. Eliot, in his poem "Four Quartets", called "the still point of the turning world". We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, there by gaining greater control over our attention and our mind.

[O] It is this control, this mental discipline, which we are at risk of losing as we spend ever more time scanning and skimming online. If the slow progression of words across printed pages damped our craving to be inundated by mental stimulation, the Internet indulges it. It returns us to our native state of distractedness, while presenting us with far more distractions than our ancestors ever had to contend with. -Nicholas Carr is the author, most recently, of "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains".

46. Rapid shifts in focus on screens during computer tasks can cause more automatic but less intensive thoughts.

47. People get less understanding from the texts filled with Internet links than normal reading.

48. According to Ms. Greenfield, growing use of screen-based media has improved our visual-spatial intelligence.

49. The richness of our memories relies on our ability to focus on something.

50. Unprecedented amounts of information can make our thoughts scattered.

51. When we turn off our computers and cellphones, the ill effects will not disappear.

52. When we are online, our brains cannot form distinctive and profound thinking.

53. Whereas the Internet distracts our attention, the book concentrates on it.

54. The experiment conducted at Cornell University indicates web surfing to school would distract students’ thoughts.

55. According to the experiment at Stanford University, the multitaskers’ attention was easily scattered.

46. 译文：电脑屏幕上注意力焦点的迅速转移使人们的思维变得更加机械，而不那么严谨了。

定位：由关键词Rapid shifts， automatic定位到原文划线句。

47.译文：人们阅读网络链接的文本所获得的信息量不如传统文本多。

定位：由 关 键 词 understandin9。Internet links 定位到原文划线句。

48. 译文：格林菲尔德女士认为，我们使用屏幕媒体越来越多，这增强了我们的视觉空间智能。

定位：由关键词Ms.Greenfield， screen-based media，visual intelligence定位到原文划线句。

49. 译文：我们记忆的丰富性取决于专注的能力。

定位：由关键词richness， memories定位到原文划线句。

50.译文：所未有的大量信息让我们 的思想变得支离破碎。

定位：由关键词Unprecedented amountl of information定位到原文划 线句。

51.译文：当我们关掉电脑和手机时，这些负面影响不会随之消失。

定位：由关键词m effects，disappear定位到原文划线句。

52.译文：上网时，我们的大脑就不可能 形成独特而富有深度的思考。

定位：由关键词distinctive and profound thinking”定位到原文划线句。

53. 译文：互联网分散了我们的注意力，书籍却可以使我们集中精力。

定位：由关键词attention， book，concentrates定位到原文划线句。

54.T译文：在康奈尔大学进行的一项 实验表明网络课堂会让学生分心。

定位：由关键词 Come University定位到原文划线句。

55. 译文：在斯坦福大学的测试中，经常同时使用多个媒体的人更容易分心。

定位:由关键词Stanford University定位到原文划线句。