the internet and our intelligence

reading Nicholas Carr's article on the internet and google's business just reminded me of the two different arguments of mr.Postman and mr.McLuhan about the nature and function of media. yeah, it's all about media, whether it's nostalgia to print culture, adoration of electric medium, or ever-changing almighty internet.
i remember when the internet was first introduced to the general public and started spreading on an explosive & global scale. i was quite puzzled and also scared of the new 'machine', and did not know at all how it was going to evolve or whether it was going to stay or short lie.
the way the internet changed how people access and retrieve information is mind-blowing. beyond that, the way it enables people to communicate and connect each other totally changed my old habits.
i remember, as a young girl, loving writing letters to friends a lot and going to post office, buying stamps and finally putting them in the post box. i don't know how to describe the feeling of joy... now that i think of it, it seems like a long time ago, and to my sadness it's an activity that pretty much disappeared from my life, not because i don't like it any more but because the way we communicate changed. people just don't do it anymore.
of course, i do contact people frequently, actually more frequently than before via email and social networking sites, but the nature and content is different from that of letter-writing. maybe what i feel missing is deep thinking or deep emotion involved in the process, which is also what i miss.. i agree with Nicholas Carr on this point, and doubt how google's project of the artificial intelligent will bring these back to us. or do we want some sort of artificial intelligence to do our emotional and thinking work at all? then what's left for our own intelligence?

personally i'm not a crazy user of the net. although i use them on a daily basis, my use has limited purposes: checking emails to keep up with people and projects, and doing some leisurely and academic research. the internet is one of the playgrounds that i enjoy along with others such as television, movies, outdoor activities, and daydreaming, etc.
still, the modest use of the internet brought about some changes in the way i function. i can't say it changed the way i think or read clearly to what extent, but it certainly made me less patient. at some point, i stopped appreciating the speed and amount of information i can access and retrieve, and started getting really impatient, insatiable and constantly wanting more convenience. in occasions where i encounter problems with computer and the internet, i find myself reacting like an impatient monster.
the 'super' convenience of the net technology indeed gives us indescribable benefit: more information/work done in less time, but the benefit comes with a price: we're required to do more work in less time. the internet saves us a lot of time, then we should be left with more time for rest or other leisurely activities? is it really the case? i doubt it. we are way busier than before and life is a lot more complex, and work certainly didn't get easier.
the advance of technology gives us more work under the condition of saved time. this new condition created by the internet transforms the way we use our intelligence ultimately, as the author worries.
it's been some 13 years since the internet became an indispensable part of our lives, and much has changed during the relatively short span of time, and maybe we need more time to gauge the impact of it on our intelligence or we as a whole will be interesting subjects for research for our future generations. in a way we're being experimented in the grand scheme of the internet technology and i guess that's what it is for now.