Anecdotal Evidence Of Carr's Argument

“Google is my best friend,” said many people in today’s world. Technology was made to make life much easier than it is, but is it really making easier or is it making people stupid? In the article, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, author Nicholas Carr conveys a message to his readers on how he believes the internet is making people today stupid and how it is fake knowledge. Carr starts off with an explanation on how he feels while reading a book to get his readers to connect with him by letting his audience that he gets fidgety and zones out when reading and a lot of people can relate to this because they too can get fidgety and lose focus when reading a text. “For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the internet,” (3). Carr goes to talk about his life surrounding the internet and how it brings upon the issues that he has when it comes to reading a single text. Carr uses many rhetorical devices such as imagery and personal experience to draw his readers in to inform and

I don’t think Carr is concise. He uses the same idea or information repeatedly in his case.

Carr gives a very well researched report of how the writing on the internet is deemed to cause the browsing experience to be fast and profitable. He explained how the internet is set up to make other people profit, how our analytical reasoning skills and study spans are diminishing in the process. He definiens what we are wasting by adopting the internet as the

Nicholas Carr, posed the question, “Is Google making us stupid”, and asks his readers to give it some thought. The article made suggestions such as the internet changing the way the mind works and that the internet has negative consequences on the human brain. Carr wants everyone to be cautious of the internet because of the many different ways it has affected and will continue to affect the way we think. When I think about this article, I can see the many different tactics Carr used, such as fact vs fiction, cause and effect, and the clearly stated argument.

Analysis 1: I will use this in my first body paragraph as a example of the rhetorical choice appeal to expert opinion with the expert expressing the internet affects the brain in a positive way. The majority of the article and the overall rhetorical choice used by Naughton is the use of different opinions of experts and writers to strength the article’s credibility. Naughton displays the statements of both arguments which can pursued the reader to form their own opinion depending on which experts point of view appealed to them. In this quotes case, the writer of this statement is Ed Bullmore, a liscenced psychiatrist. His job title alone lets the reader know he has a academic background regarding the argument in a psychological stand point. His statement that “the impact of the internet has

Nicholas G. Carr has written an abundance of articles about technology. Some of his work includes: Does It Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, and The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google. One of Carr’s achievements, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” smoothly persuades the reader to believe that the Internet is taking over the human mind. The article’s title brings a tough question to mind for readers. By using a familiar movie scene and arguments embedded with relatable analogies, imagery and metaphors; Carr casually and acceptably leads his audience to a reasonable

According to Nicholas Carr, the internet has had an effect on how we read, think and live. He provides examples of this throughout his essay. In one of his statements he says “the net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information [we receive]” (732) He gathers this information from other colleagues and friends he knows. People can access the internet and in a few clicks to have all the information they need and more. We are no longer limited by local sources to gather our data. At the speed of light, the voices of millions can be heard by all. It is the quick access and our human desire for knowledge that feeds the need for the internet. It has damaged our level of patience and causing our minds to wander. “And what

The internet has made an immense impact on every generation since its existence as it continues to grow throughout time. Its effectiveness is prodigious; the internet allows people to gain information that once took days to retrieve it in a few minutes (Carr 1). Writer Nicholas Carr, in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, explains that the use of internet and technology causes harm to people and their brains. Carr’s purpose is to address to internet users that Google (or any electronic helpers) is making them “stupid” and lazy because it minimizes their concentration and willingness to think. He attempts to adapt to his audience, dedicated internet users, as he uses the rhetorical appeals to try to convince them of his purpose. However, this was not enough. Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” is ineffective because of his poor use of ethos and logos despite his good use of pathos.

Finally, Carr uses logical arguments to support his idea that the internet is too distracting for people to be productive. Although some parts of his article Carr references experiments and opinions of scientists, not all of his arguments need such references because they are just logical arguments. For example, he talks about how people who go online while at work are less productive is a logical argument that makes sense and therefore doesn’t need a source for that argument. Or that the sounds of messages and emails popping up on someone’s computer can get someone unfocused. Carr has uses phrases like “It’s hardly surprising” in his paper to indicate that something is

In the end, Carr gives Google’s viewpoint on the argument. Sergey Brin, a founder of the Google search engine, stated in an interview, “Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” The founders of Google say it is better to have information at your fingertips because it makes life easier. Then, Nicholas states, “Maybe I’m just a worrywart.” The author gives the other side of the argument to show that his stance is not one-sided and to makes the readers think about what they are

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.

Identifying patterns: Make a list of the benefits and negative effects of the Internet that Carr identifies. On which side does Carr seem to provide more examples and supporting evidence?

Carr mentions his personal experience with technology and how it has affected him. He points out his “concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages” (961). Carr isn’t the only one who has been affected by technology; he tells us that even his “acquaintances” have had similar experiences. His acquaintances say, “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (962). What once used to come natural to us has become difficult. People used to rely on books for multiple reasons when it came to research but now that technology has been used more frequently books are not that common. Carr says “Research that once required days . . . can be done in minutes” (962). Carr is mentioning the benefits of the Internet, for his argument he is using both sides so that the reader can relate to his article and understand where he is coming from. Carr quotes Marshall McLuhan when he points out that “the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (962). Although fast research is great and easy to access it has its flaws. Carr mentions that

As Carr continues, he speaks of his extended use of the internet over the last decade, explaining that all information that he once painstakingly searched for is done in minutes with the use of search engines. In doing this, Carr places blame on the internet for breaking his ability to concentrate. Carr presents his arguments in a way that his readers could easily agree. He gradually works up to the idea that the internet has weakened his ability to focus, and as he does this he makes several general statements about the internet’s nature. These points on the net’s nature are so basic that any reader of his article would be inclined to agree with them, and this lends itself to help readers believe the argument Carr wishes to propose. Because it would be hard to provide factual evidence to support his claims, Carr effectively uses logical reasoning to convince the reader.

Additionally, the Internet has benefited the world by connecting users to billions of pieces of information from universities, libraries and databases around the world. No matter where you are in the world as long as you have internet access you can learn anything you need to know about a topic in a matter of minutes. My work on this argument is an example of how the internet is beneficial to all who use it. Without access to the internet, this would have been much more labor intensive. It would have required many evenings away from home spent in a library doing research. Instead, I was able to do all of my research from work and home, which allowed for less time away from my son.