Is Google Making USupid, By Nicholas Carr

Improved Essays
Technology—mainly the invention of the Internet—is supposed to make lifeline easier, but according to Nicholas Carr, the invention has diminished our ability to comprehend the world of literature. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” he explains how our brains have been reprogrammed to think, due to the way the Internet spoon feeds us the information we are requesting, in the most elementary ways. Throughout the entirety of the article Carr battles with the idea of whether or not the Internet is an instrument of knowledge or whether or not it will one day be the cause of an ignorant society. Inventions such as the typewriter and the Internet, Carr explains, have altered the way we think about and explore writing. Today, the Internet …show more content…
After almost six pages of swimming through a “sea of words,” Carr finally stumbles upon the topic mentioned in the title of his article—Google (par. 4). He picks at our brains, challenging us to get to this point in the article, testing the mental capabilities of the modern day human. Carr notes that “the Internet…[is] becoming our map, and our, clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and tv;” (par. 18) he expresses how all these inventions have been, in a way, beneficial to mankind. However, while the Internet is seen as the Holy Grail of information, “the Internet’s high church,” Google, feels their search engine is not as adequate as it could be. The companies goal of creating “an artificial intelligence is unsettling” worries Carr (par. 29). An invention such as this would make humans completely dependent upon technology. This reliance on machines would ultimately result in a desolation of much needed human qualities—educational and analytical thinking—leading to the decline of the “human.” Carr’s simplistic diction very rarely wavers. His choice of diction is that of an average person; he speaks as if speaking to a friend. Only occasionally does Carr use words that do not appear conversational. The use of these non-conversational words such as “pithy”, “ubiquity” heighten his diction, by doing so Carr automatically strengthens his syntax making him appear credible (par. 3 and

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