Nicholas Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, argues something legitimate - the dumbing down of people as a result of overwhelming technology. Throughout this piece, Carr focuses on the influential power of technology in changing the way the mind works, referencing examples that span from the writings of Plato to anecdotes about his own experiences in using the Internet. Though Carr presents a solid argument, he fails to persuade due to two main issues: his assumptively negative perspective on technology’s effects and his lack of convincing, concrete evidence. Ultimately, Carr incorrectly thinks that Google, or technology in general, makes us “stupid;” rather, it allows for people to view information in a more efficient manner.…
In today's world we are introduced to new technology everyday, that is made to make our lives both easier and better. Although in the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, author Nicholas Carr provides the reader with his own thoughts on how he feels that the internet is taking over. Carr first explains that the internet has caused focusing issues forever everyone including himself. And continues to add that his life has become immersed in the internet, for he now struggles to stay connected to one task without feeling any temptations to use the easier to access internet. Like all successful writers Carr had to use rhetorical appeals to draw in an audience to read his article.…
Carr uses his own experiences with Google to inform his readers of the negative effects that it has had on our society so far and the damage it can cause in the future. His example includes how Google has allowed our society to adapt to bad habits such as skimming carelessly, as opposed to detailed analytical reading. He supports this theory by admitting that he notices himself skimming and finding short articles online because they tend to be more convenient. Due to the Internet’s convenience and access to abundant amounts of information, people tend to lean more towards skimming because reading everything the Internet provides us thoroughly, would take too much time. Carr's overall motive is to propagate to his readers that what he sees in the future is not acceptable and that we must do something to stop technology from controlling and negatively altering our cognitive functions.…
In the information age, misuse of computers hurts the intelligence of the general population by reducing their attention spans. Many people in first-world countries cannot resist peeking at their smartphones during important tasks, but like any new technology, these problems eventually fade away. For example, new weapons introduced in World War I led to trench warfare, but later, war experts found new strategies that prevent these stalemates. Although Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” argues that Google reduces the attention span of the general population, Google does not deserve the blame. New technologies have distracted people who lack discipline for centuries.…
1. Using a paraphrase as an in-text citation: The author, Nicholas Carr, begins by inferring that the internet has a huge amount of information, readily available data that is easily accessed. He refers to the perfect nature of the internet, as far as recalling information once it is in the memory. Further in the paragraph he begins to ponder the way his mind is adapting to the speed with which information is accessible.…
In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr emphasizes that he believes that the internet, Google in particular, is causing a negative change in the way people think. Throughout his article, Carr makes numerous great points and provides much evidence to support his claims. Although a majority of his points are valuable, not all convey his thoughts adequately or administer the right emotions. It is also important to point out that placing the blame solely on the internet, and not acknowledging that there are other factors that may contribute to this problem, is a bit of a reach. Carr cites different sources, such as theorist Marshall McLuhan and psychologist Maryanne Wolf, to give his statements some credibility.…
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.…
In his essay written in The Atlantic, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr argues that the newest form of media known as the Internet, fundamentally alters the way a person's mind processes and contains information simultaneously. In the article, Carr begins with a dialogued, description of the closing scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, when Dave is dismantling HAL, the artificial interface within the ship, removing his memory boards. When HAL says he can feel his mind slipping, Carr says he can too.…
In Nicholas Carr’s essay, Is Google Making Us Stupid, he notes that the internet has clearly had negative impacts on the way we read, process thoughts, and even how we write. He argues that through the many years of being online, it has helped him with research and has allowed him to search through endless amounts of information in a short period of time, which would be otherwise impossible in a library. I agree that this is a sort of convenience that we all enjoy, especially myself, but it does hold issues we are only looking for related material for our works; and not for the sake of understanding of what we need to know. Also, is it almost impossible to read anything without wanting to get to the point instantaneously, and if not, we become somewhat unenthused and “fidgety.” But I did find that…
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.’’…
The Internet holds infinite knowledge, answers, information, and entertainment; ultimately, the entire world in just one search engine, otherwise known as the World Wide Web. Constantly, mindlessly, and subconsciously we use the Internet, almost as if it’s become our second nature. Most of society finds gratification on instant information, now; “the average number of Google searches per day has grown from 9,800 in 1998 to over 4.7 trillion today” (Academicearth). We perceive this as a positive aspect as technology has improved drastically over the years, however, society may be ignoring the fact how the Internet is changing the way we think.…
With his general blanket term of “Internet” he by default includes encyclopedias, academic journals, classic literature, world news, and a number of other tools that today’s internet users utilize to deepen their knowledge, inspire, or educate. Mr. Carr refers to a study that texts read on the internet that have links included in them are actually harmful to our ability to understand the texts, as opposed to texts read from a paper. “People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehends less than those who take in information in a more sedate and focused manner.”…
Carr explains his experiences with google and modern technology. For example, Carr says that because of google, he can no longer read in-depth pieces of writing. This is the same for others as well, talking about his friends, Carr says “The more they use the web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (1). Avery Stroman, who wrote a paper regarding his thoughts on Nicholas Carr 's paper and how he feels about google says “I allowed the presence of Facebook, Twitter, and email to prevent me from reading his entire article without stopping. Without thinking, I switched from the article at hand to the internet” (79).…
Over the century innovation has changed humans critical thinking. From the manual type writer to the computer the utilization of the technology, is part of our everyday activity. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr, Carr tried to express his concern, how the internet changing our lives and the thinking ability and the way our brain processes the information differently than it used to in the past. Carr explain how we don’t think and depend on quick searches, rather than taking our time to do critical thinking and researches. He tells us how our brain is malleable, and it is changing every day.…
Although depending on the internet may not seem to be as bad as it is thought to be, it takes away from the notion of thinking for ourselves. “We no longer take responsibility for our own beliefs, and we lack the capacity to see how bits of facts fit into a larger whole.” (7, Lepore) By referring back to the internet to justify our facts and get answers, we fail to understand how these answers are related to one another and how this knowledge fits together. However, Lynch believes it’s not the internet to blame but the paradox that “reason can’t defend itself without reason”.…