Does The Internet Make You Dumber By Nicholas Carr Summary

Great Essays
We are living in the time that three-year old boys play tablets, seventy-year old women use laptops, teenagers and adults cannot keep their hands off mobile phones. The sad truth is, technologies were and are being used widely, and along with it, the internet became an important part in our daily lives. Too much of anything is bad. Too much of utilizing the internet is not good, too. Having recognized this issue, Nicholas Carr wrote an article “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?” to forewarn the users of adverse threats of the internet on humans’ brains: obtuseness, distraction and short-term memory. He provides ample studies and comparative experiments to prove these negative impacts. For people who spend much time on working with the internet, Carr explains that humans’ brains tend to get …show more content…
However, Carr underestimates the massive source of knowledge that the internet has brought to people, overlooks humans’ responsibilities in using and controlling the internet and he also misses some internet’s advantages over printed books. This article, sad to say, has still not persuasively indicated a harm of the …show more content…
In this way, he just adds and adds another proof dryly with no emotion. For instance, “In an article published in Science last year” (217) and he states one evidence, then “In one experiment conducted at Cornell University” (217) and he states another evidence, continuously, “In another experiment, recently conducted at Stanford University 's Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab” (218) and he keeps going. Throughout this article, he uses neutral tone and neutral language. Maybe this is a style of expository essay, but it is quite boring when

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Technology is advancing to where everyday tasks become simpler with a click of a button. Search engines like Bing, Yahoo, or even Google allow people to instantly find answers that we are looking for on any topic. In Nicholas Carr’s article “ Is Google Making Us Stupid,” he appeals to readers’ emotions to describe personal experiences, uses logic, facts, and analysis backed by research to lure the audience in, and persuades them that the internet causes our brain to be easily distracted and shortens our attention span. Carr starts off the article by explaining how he feels the internet is affecting how he focuses on tasks, and how “he can no longer be completely immersed in a book.’’ But as a writer, he also finds the internet to be a “godsend.’’…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He adopts a very personal and relatable tone when addressing his audience who were captivated by the enticing title and interested in the effects the Net has on our cognitive functions. Carr uses his article as an opportunity to convey how our overuse of the Net can affect our focusing and thinking habits while trying to stay personally connected to the…

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thesis For The Shallows

    • 1774 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Essay Since the introduction of computers, they have served me for numerous purposes. In his book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr suggests that even though the internet is an important tool, it is also a distraction causing users to be less attentive people.…

    • 1774 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nicholas Carr Rhetoric

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In this article, the writer Nicholas Carr attempts to explain how is the information offered on the internet has reformed our method of intelligent. He uses several altered techniques to play on the reader’s emotions by using stories, studies, and his own reflection to try to convince the audience that the internet has been unfavorable to our intelligent and knowledge ways. For the most part of his argument is unproductive because of his organization, his choice of sources, and his tone. Carr started his article with a quote from 2001 called A Space Odyssey. He clarifies the quote, speaking about in what way the human is modernizing the PC, but then the equivalents that with how PCs have renewed his brain.…

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nicholas Carr introduces us to the idea that people are allowing the Internet to think for them. Are the readers of the world losing the ability to think for themselves? Are they allowing others to do the long, tedious research just because they can? Carr’s writing is influential because he gives accurate cause and effects of his argument, shows his knowledge of the topic while presenting both sides of the issue, and makes his words exciting and interesting for the reader.…

    • 1618 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The internet attracts students, teachers, researchers, and the average individual interested in the online community, but is the internet helpful –or hurtful? Nicholas Carr in his essay “Hal and Me” argues that, “The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle” in result of the internet (Carr, 13). Although Carr is correct, the internet can encourage a laziness in regards to deeper reading and a resentment towards focusing for long periods of time, but the internet is a tool, and the user dictates the usefulness of that tool. If used the right way, the World Wide Web, through its ability to present thousands of databases in the safety of your home, can aid in a student’s academic career, and not kill their ability to concentrate. Nicholas Carr says, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Carr, 14) in a sense, the…

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The essay, “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?” written by Nicholas Carr, addresses the negative impact that the internet has on us. He uses experiments from highly recognized universities and people to support his view. He emphasizes that the use of technology and multitasking distracts us which leads to lack of focus, “turning us into scatter superficial thinkers.” Carr conveys that while we may think we are good multitaskers, we need to focus to meaningfully understand and retain knowledge. He expresses how negative the loss of mental discipline and strength can affect our lives with the use of a hyperbole.…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On average, how much time do you spend on the internet? If you said around 8 hours, then you fall under the majority of Americans. In the popular novel "What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains: The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr, Carr explains how the internet is changing our mindset and making us more shallow hence the title of the book. Carr also describes how we are less capable of doing our own work because we have access to popular search engines such as Google or Yahoo. In the novel "What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains: The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr, Carr explains how the internet is changing who we are, our IQ, and our ability to work.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    According to Carr (2010), reasoning has been fundamentally altered by the Internet into superficial thought processes through skimming, diversions, and facile learning. The research confirms that the ‘mental calisthenics’ involved in surfing the Internet, consequently puts even more of a strain on the brain, which then results in the lack of comprehension (Carr 2010, p. 3). For example, navigating Wikipedia, where there are numerous links to other sub-topics, have been found to considerably increase distractibility and oversimplified thinking because of the countless information the brain is inundated with, such as advertisements, formats, and others. In essence, screen technology through the loss of focus and depth of thought has radically changed cognition, which is pernicious to an intellectual…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Matrix Dystopia

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages

    “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. " This is a quickly discernible phrase for connoisseurs of the science fiction world; it is a memorable line from one of the most recognizable and celebrated sci-fi movies of the 20th century, The Matrix, which was written and directed by Lana and Lilla Wachowski.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this new era, our society is facing different modern-days issues, Nicholas Carr’s article describes how the evolution of technology has reduced use of reading, writing, and thinking skills. Now all type of information is just far by one click. We connected unlimited amounts of information Just by typing, clicking online, which is totally different from gathering data for any research. Many people think this modern society and development of technology make our generation sharp and our lives easy. According to Nicholas Carr's view that internet making our generation dumber, and their way of thinking has been changed.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Is Google Making Us Stupid

    • 1631 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In the article “is Google Making Us Stupid” the main point the author Nicholas Car is trying to make is that as the interenet becomes our primary source of information and it is beginning to affect our ability to read books and other long pieces. Even though this process may offer knowledge effeicieny it flattens our brains learning experience in the process. The first thing Carr does is share a problem with audience about how he cant focus on reading . Carr goes on to give a very well researched account of how text on the interent is supposed to make the browsing experience fast and profitable. He descrbes how the internet is set up to make browsing experience fast and profitable.…

    • 1631 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As technology develops, some people worry about the effects of those changes upon our society. Mr. Nicholas Carr, the author of “Is the Internet Making Us Dumber?” (Wall Street Journal) claims that the internet as a medium for information is having a detrimental effect upon the human brain and changing the way we think in a negative way. He claims that the internet has an excess of information and distractors that detract from our ability to focus, concentrate, and consolidate memory properly.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The brain has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions" (Carr 60). While reading Nicholas Carr 's article "Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains", one may feel they have taken a seat on the most intellectual and fascinating roller coaster. In the 2008 article published in the Atlantic, Carr effectively explains not only what an obsessive amount of surfing the web is progressively doing to our lives but in our lives. He does an exceptional job at delivering his findings to the audience without overly complicating it.…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Internet has become a huge component in everyday life. Many people think it is for the worse. What people do not know is that the Internet actually makes children smarter. Researchers have discovered that the Internet makes children smarter by increasing their interest in reading, improving their writing skills, and improving cognitive abilities. Researchers have also discovered that the…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays