Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Nicholas Carr is an American author who writes the majority of books and articles about the continuously evolving world of technology and how it is effecting our society. Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times bestseller. In this essay I will be rhetorically analyzing Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid” published in 2008. The purpose of Carr’s essay was to bring light to an issue that many of us face but only a meniscal few have come to terms with; and that is that technology is mentally incapacitating our society and simultaneously making us lazy. This essay was intended for anyone was has been consumed in today’s culture by new technological advances to the extent of not being able to function without some sort of device, IE cellphone, laptop or tablet on a daily basis.

As time progresses in our technologically propelled era and the internet continues to provide as the largest network source of information, our intellectual perception of information takes on a more distinctive and less analytical approach than before. The use of the internet has seized control over the vast connection of neural pathways in our minds, influencing our experiences and essentially hindering our natural ability to apply cognitive thinking.

Since the rise of technology and smart devices, the public has seen controversy over the benefits and drawbacks of internet usage. Nicholas Carr shared his opinions in the article “From The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.” In the text, he claims that it seems to be “chipping away” his “capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Carr 5). In addition to that, he does not hesitate to state how “some worry they’re becoming chronic scatterbrains” from using the web (Carr 6). His views are painted purple in this piece of writing, as any reader could infer that Carr possesses a slightly bitter tone when it comes to the interwebs. He displays his dislike for the way it is reshaping our brains and mental function, even going

One of the most common clichés is that the Internet has robbed us of our attention spans and impeded our ability to communicate effectively. Once we could write properly, now we only text. Google has made us lazy in terms of how we research and access data. However, is this true? In three major news publications, three major essayists have grappled with this question and come to completely different conclusions. Although the neurological evidence in support of the 'Internet is stealing our brains' thesis is mixed, there is at minimum evidence that people 'feel' as though the Internet has changed their ability to express themselves and to synthesize information.

How many times a day do you find yourself reading a book or long article but cannot seem to concentrate? This seems to be happening a lot lately, to many people especially the younger generations. In Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he addresses this recurring problem as it overcomes him as well. He tries to figure out why so many have this same problem by asking others, looking back through history, using current studies and so on. Carr’s article shows how peoples deep seeded need or more of a want can turn into a struggle with a technology obsession.

The internet can be great source of information, but it has a negative effect on the human brain. In Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, he describes how the internet has negatively effected his brain by stating, “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 733). The internet has a huge impact on the thinking process of the human brain and it is completely changing the human ability to concentrate for long periods of time, human reading skills, and the configuration of the brain.

With the rising of technology in the modern age, lots of new inventions have come out with it and it helps our life in significantly. But that growth of technology has also raised a vast amount of concerns, and most of it due to its negative effect on our mind – the users who benefit from it. Nicholas Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” has strengthen those concerns by coming up with the idea that the advance in techonology is influencing our thoughts and behaviors to be functioned differently than the way they used to be.

In the article, “Caught in the Web: More People Say Heavy Internet Use is Disrupting Their Lives, and Medical Experts are Paying Attention” by January W. Payne argues that using technology too much, has consequences that can affect the people around, and the individual’s health as well. At the same time, many people use internet excessively, and do not realize that, they might get further from the outside world. According to a research by Stanford University, demonstrated, that people spend on the internet about 3 or more hours daily. Many people are getting addictive to the internet, because they see it as an escape from problems, while others use it as a way to relax themselves. As people addiction to the internet increase, people isolate

People are turning out to be all the more innovatively effective consistently. New developments and advancements are always being made. The Internet is turning out to be more "dependable" consistently. Be that as it may, what amount do we truly get from the consistent progression of Internet utilize and more quick witted innovation? Would it be advisable for us to take a gander at their commitments to the world as a promoter or a revile? The basic impact of "manmade brainpower" in the innovation we utilize each day is inspected by two splendid creators, Nicholas Carr and Jamias Cascio. In Carr's article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid", he clarifies the impacts of the Internet and innovation in our general public and cases that the abuse of innovation is risky and can influence how our psyche works. Jamias Cascio, then again, utilizes his article "Get Smarter" to demonstrate the beneficial

Nicholas Carr, the author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” believed that as technology improves, we lose a little bit of ourselves in the process. I think that he is right, as I look around I see people not even able to hold a conversation without looking at their phone or tablets. Practices that used to be a normal thing people learned before technology improves, now people rely on their phone to do those things now. The days where people had to remember phone number and birthdays are over, those things are now programed into cell phone and electronic calendars. Only a few years ago people had to go to the library to get information and we would remember that information for some time, for these reasons I believe that technology is making people dumber and dumber.

Carry’s essay offers us insight into an extremely relevant question in this day and age. Is our increasing use of rapidly evolving technologies detrimental to the human brain? Or in other words, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” (Carr 737). What Carr said may be offensive to some, but he has a point. While I agree with Carr’s statement that “I’m not thinking the way I used to think” (Carr 731). I do not believe advanced technologies like Google are “making us stupid”(Carr 737). They are just making our brains indolent by replacing our natural critical thinking skills with that of an artificial intelligence.

With the fast-paced development of technology, internet plays a more and more important role in our life. While acknowledging the convenience provided by the internet, Nicholas Carr expressed his concern that it negatively influenced our capability of deep reading and thinking in his article Is Google Making Us Stupid? Published in the 2008 issue of the Atlantic. However, there existed some weaknesses in his arguments due to the use of overstated pathos, inappropriate examples, and faulty logics, which to some extent hurt his persuasiveness.

Nicholas Carrs article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” makes points that I agree with, although I find his sources to be questionable. The article discusses the effects that the Internet may be having on our ability to focus, the difference in knowledge that we now have, and our reliance on the Internet. The points that are made throughout Carrs article are very thought provoking but his sources make them seem invaluable.

The ‘Internet’ is one of the most used search tool on the earth, used by majority of the world’s population for research, communication, conveniences, entertainment and much more. Over the years, cases in relation to negative transformation of human behaviors, where people are becoming emotionally depress, horrified, vulnerable, addicted through the internet has become a serious problem for many people around the world, including us.

The essay “Is Google Making Us stupid?” by Nicholas Carr highlights how having access to unlimited amounts of information changes the way that people process information. Google may not be making the population “stupid”, but in the eyes of Carr, it is changing the way that we think, and thus, making it progressively harder to focus on long pieces of writing. Because people can seldom focus on long pieces of literature, they rarely read them at all. Nicholas Carr addresses this issue by using persuasive techniques such as constructing an engaging introduction paragraph, establishing a rapport with his readers, and by creating credibility in the eyes of his audience in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”