It is no question that the internet and technology have grown tremendously over the years. The real question is, is the internet doing us harm or is it actually helping us? In my opinion, both.

The internet can be considered harmful to us because let's be honest, we no longer have to verbally communicate with the majority of the world. We no longer have to call someone on the phone because we can just send them a text or a Facebook message. We go out on dates and sit on our phones the entire time instead of having a conversation with each other. People don't even walk up to your door anymore. Instead, they stay in their car and text you saying they are outside so you will come to them. We do everything that we can to avoid social situations without even realizing it. It is easier, more comfortable, and there is less pressure. We live in a world now where people are actually scared to talk to other people because they have grown so very accustomed to the online world. It is ruining our relationships.

Along with our loss of communication skills comes lack of grammar skills. I will be honest, I am very picky about people using good grammar...in fact I am probably more picky about it than most people are. But I can't be the only one who has noticed how much the internet has destroyed our basic grammar and punctuation skills that we all learned back in elementary school. Everything is abbreviated now. No one bothers spelling anything out, and no one uses punctuation. In the online world it is acceptable, but in the workforce it is unprofessional.

Now to take a look at the other end of this debate...Weeks ago in one of my classes, I was assigned to read an article titled, "Is Google Making us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr. In this article, Carr discusses the very negative aspects Google can have on us. It is very convincing but as I thoroughly read through it, I came to the conclusion for myself that most of his points about why the internet is so bad for us are actually our fault. The basics of his article are that we do not read the way that we used to. People skim everything. They don't want to read long articles because they have gotten used to reading short Facebook posts and tweets. This is not fair to blame on the internet when it is actually our fault as individuals. Because of today’s technology, we have so much information about anything and everything readily available to us whenever we need it. I feel that this all falls on personal responsibility. For example, if you are doing research for a paper you can either read through different articles and take the time to learn the material which will make you smarter, or you can skim through a few paragraphs and just throw it into a paper hoping that it makes sense. In the end, it really is up to you.

The internet does have its downfalls as far as altering our communication and grammar skills, but I don't believe that we should blame the internet for how we decide to use the information and features it provides. If we do not use it wisely then we are making ourselves stupid. The internet is not making us stupid.