Nicholas Carr answers the question “Is Google making us stupid,” with claims and evidence from other individuals who have noticed a difference in their own reading, writing, and interpretation skills after spending too much time on the internet. Scanning quickly through online articles and skipping from link to link is what is leading individuals to a lack of deep reading and thought, as oppose to actually understanding and interpreting the text. By using other individuals personal experiences and evidence regarding the issue, Carr constructs the argument that Google, is indeed, making us stupid.
One counterargument Carr introduces, is the fact that with the internet, people may be reading more than they did twenty years ago; due to the convenience
With the rise of technology and the staggering availability of information, the digital age has come about in full force, and will only grow from here. Any individual with an internet connection has a vast amount of knowledge at his fingertips. As long as one is online, he is mere clicks away from Wikipedia or Google, which allows him to find what he needs to know. Despite this, Nicholas Carr questions whether Google has a positive impact on the way people take in information. In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr explores the internet’s impact on the way people read. He argues that the availability of so much information has diminished the ability to concentrate on reading, referencing stories of literary types who no longer
In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, the main argument the author, Nicholas Carr is trying to make is to explain how the Internet becomes our only source of information. Carr is also trying to warn oncoming generations in how the Internet has affected our ability to read long pieces or to be able to retain information for a long period of time. Carr provides personal experience, imagery, and a professional analysis that is backed by research to hook the audience in and persuade them that in today’s society, the Internet is only causing problems rather than any solutions.Throughout the article Carr provides an abundant amount of rhetorical modes by giving examples and studies from different organizations . Carr gives an insight on the positive ways the Internet had influenced his life.
It is true that people are becoming more and more reliant on the internet to do everyday tasks. I feel that Carr addresses the issue perfectly in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid”. If we continue to use technology for everything, we will eventually lose all ability to deep read and make those critical connections that are necessary for true comprehension and application. He indicates that “the more [he] uses the web, the more he has to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (736). Knowing how difficult it was to read and analyze Carr’s article myself, I fully agree with his claims. Having grown up in a world that has always had technology, I must be hyper-cognizant of the task at hand when it comes to something such as reading, particularly if it is something that I deem less than interesting. When I was finally able to get through the entire essay, I started to think about how much I use the internet. I must admit that
of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” published in 2008 in the Atlantic, believes that the internet is “tinkering with our brains” and has even admitted to seeing changes within himself. Carr created this article to inform people about how societies ability to read and comprehend information is being changed or harmed by the use of the internet. Carr did have some errors such as structural problems with his thesis and also struggled with an informal writing style. Despite some of these errors, Carr’s use of rhetorical techniques such as ethos, pathos, logos, and ample amount of personal and factual information along with the emotional touches, allows him to develop a strong persuasive argument.
Carr starts at his paper in a first point of view. He expresses his feelings that the internet is changing his own personal thinking. This man is an author, he's born to read and even he says that he's having problems because he can no longer read anymore. Carr says that “the web has been a godsend” (Carr), but he also explained it's not only a
In the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicholas Carr expresses his beliefs and personal experiences on how the internet has altered our brains and how we think. He addresses the fact that, although our brains’ abilities to deep read and concentrate are suffering, the internet is extremely beneficial and convenient. Because of the easy accessibility, it takes little to no effort to find information, and therefore, a minimal amount of thinking is required. Carr highlights that people are more impatient because of the internet and that our minds are becoming more erratic. The author used research, conducted by a U.K. educational consortium, to show that a new form of reading is developing over time; rather than reading every word on a
Carr makes the point that throughout time people have always questioned new technology. Socrates was doubtful of the development of writing, because he feared it would make people forgetful and ignorant (Carr 394), but now that we look at how drastically the invention of writing changed the world, it seems necessary to life. Nowadays people even look down on those who cannot write and consider them at a disadvantage. A similar controversy arose when Gutenberg invented the printing press. Some people worried that it would make society lazy and less studious (Carr 395). Life in the twenty first century seems unimaginable without books, magazines, newspapers; the population of people who do not use these tools on a daily basis is minuscule. Carr
The Italian humanist Hieronimo Squarciafico worried that the easy availability of books would lead to intellectual laziness, making men “less studious” and weakening their minds. Others argued that cheaply printed books and broadsheets would undermine religious authority, demean the work of scholars and scribes, and spread sedition and debauchery. The change in technology seems to have had a lasting effect on human beings. Carr goes back as far as the 19th century to back his argument of the internet affecting the brain. He strategically states all the negatives aspects but none of the
Technology, especially the Internet, makes humans’ life easier and more effective. A quick access to information brings people a huge opportunity to explore the world and develop them. However, Nicolas Carr, in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” argues that technology affects people’s life, it changes their mind and actions, and humans start to lose abilities of “deep thinking and deep reading”, which are essential skills of being humans. In other words, our world becomes more simplified that people are unable to be smart and creative as they were in the past. For him, today’s people think and act in the frame of programmed world of the Net. Moreover, although Carr worries that the Net based corporations, such as Google, are seeking to replace human’s
Most people in today’s society have been affected by how simple technology makes our lives. Considering they’re hand held computers, it makes sense. All of this technology at our fingertips has also brought upon its negative outcomes. Technology has created a false world that we consume ourselves with on a daily basis.
I kind of agree with him, although he made some valid points. He said that people are not interested as much in reading and how he finds himself skimming through articles that are more than few paragraphs. I also do find myself skimming through articles sometimes when it comes to reading the article. When I was back home, we didn’t had access to internet and we need to find something or do research about something we would go to the library and read a lot of books and try to find information that was required for the assignments. We even had to write it down on the paper because there were no computers as well. But when I came to United State everything was so different I learned about computer and how we can find any kind information by looking it up. In high school, everything was on the computer email, homework assignments and even presentations. As time pass by I did started noticing the difference I started using the computer more and paper less to form my thoughts because I felt it was to much. For example, Fredrich Nietzsche, a writer sometime in 1882, Carr explained Nietzsche got the typewriter when writing was becoming a huge task for him, until him and his friend started noticing the change in him “Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.” It made me wonder that how I use to think when I was back home. I did notice change in me, as time pass by I stopped going to the library and started using google for every little information that I needed. As Carr mentioned ““Someone or something has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory.” I believe that it’s giving us all the answers that we need without even working hard for it. When we need something, or don’t understand something, the first thing people do is look up on the google and I also use google multiple times in a day. We can find so much
What Nicholas Carr is saying in his essay “Is Google Making Us stupid?” is that when we depend on the internet, we tend to skim over long articles instead of taking our time reading the articles. When we skim over things we do not absorb as much information as we do when we take our time reading it. Part of the reason we skim over things that we read is that we get easily distracted and it makes it harder to concentrate. Depending on the internet has made it to where we do not use our brains as much to solve problems or think of new ideas. When you have access to the internet you depend on it for a lot of things and you do not use your brain as often to solve problems.
Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is a piece that will open the eyes of any internet user. He explains his own issues with lack of focus when reading long novels and says it is a product of the interweb’s shaping. As Google becomes more and more part of our daily lives, it is having a negative effect on our information processes and interpretations. In effect, its current use is preventing us from retaining information and to be able to think, comprehend, and be inquisitive.
Nicholas Carr’s 2008 article in The Atlantic, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, argues that the Internet and access to vast amounts of information is corroding the attention spans and thought complexity of the billions of Internet users around the world. As Carr himself puts it, “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) He proposes that having many different sources at once will cause readers to skip around sporadically rather than thoughtfully consume information, and that Google has an agenda to cause this behavior due to their economic interests. Overall, Carr paints a cynical outlook on the prevalence in Google and any societal changes stemming from its use. David Weir’s 2010
Carr discusses the effects that the Internet has on our minds and the way we think, as well as the way media has changed. Our minds no longer focus. When in conversation with people we are constantly distracted by the technological advances our era has brought. Text messages, emails, pop culture drama has all taken