Analysis Of Nicholas Carr's Essay 'Is Google Making USupid?'

The classical Greek philosopher once said that the new technology of writing “will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls because they will not use their memories,” from “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr. The species known as the homo-sapien now have the power to learn about anything, talk to people from different countries, and at the blink of the eye, get a response through the power of the internet. If the students here at Montesano High School take part in “Washington Screen Free Week,” the learning experience will be going backwards in time in the wrong direction.

Nicholas Carr argues in his text, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” that the Internet is changing the way people work and reflect for the worst. Carr’s argument is ineffective because while the Internet might be shifting people, it could be for the better. Nicholas Carr argues that the instant access to information through Google provides has caused the loss of the ability to read long articles and as well be able to hold our attention with out just skimming through the text. While Carr attempts to persuade his audience through his rhetorical aim and as well as the usage of ethos, pathos and logos to convince his audience with a rational dispute, his argument is to direct and the audience he is speaking to

“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

Nicholas Carr stated a couple true statements, but I disagree that google is making us stupid. In the article, Carr explained how reading has drastically increased throughout the years. He is indeed correct about this. During this generation, people rely on the internet to provide accurate essential facts, which one can gain valuable knowledge from. Those who skim through articles or never read a book due to losing concentration after reading three pages are not lacking intelligence, but lack ambition and motivation.

In his essay, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr discusses societies dependence to easily accessible information. Since the inception of the internet and search engines, information has been accessible to us instantly. Although instant access to information is a desirable advancement in technology, it comes with questionable consequences. From his own personal experience, Carr explains that since this invention, his brain feels as if it has been tinkered with. Carr explains that his brain does not work the way it used to, that it’s very hard for him to become engrossed in books, articles, or essays. As he continued to try to become engrossed in these readings, he found that his thoughts would wander and he would become restless after just a few

With the rise of technology, society is beginning to wonder if it is helping or hurting us. Many people privileged enough to have technology, argue that though technology is helping the world advance, it is altering our thoughts and perceptions. In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” he blatantly calls out the current generation and expresses his concerns about how the internet is changing the way people interpret information. Carr’s main claim is that the internet is causing people to lose their ability to concentrate and think on their own. Google can affect our cognition but depending on its uses it can make people smarter.

Nicholas Carr, in his article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?," questions whether or not Google is benefitting society or destroying the ability of people to concentrate and think for themselves. In this day and age, Google is a lifeline, and it can be argued that without it, society would fall apart. Carr gives Google adequate credit for its positive benefits and revolutionary developments in the recent years, but he also points out how it may also be detrimental to this generation and future generations to come.

In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr the thesis of the article is internet technology is altering our thought process. His article was featured in the Atlantic in 2008. In the article, Nicholas Carr says that he is not thinking the same and he cannot read like he used to. Now he loses concentration after reading two or three pages. He thinks this is happening because he has been spending a lot of time online. People can find things easily with Google so they do not have to look for it as much. Before people had to go to libraries to search for information but now they can just look for it online. His friends and acquaintances also said they are having similar problems. He says the longer people use the Web the harder it is for them to concentrate.

Google is something that made people’s life easier. It’s the search engine that delivers useful information about anything. Most of the time people will google to find information that they need without even figuring it out by themselves first. Internet is affecting us in a negative without us even noticing. Now days’ technology is so advanced that we have access to internet everywhere like cellphones, laptops, and computers. Google is changing the way we process information it’s changing the way we think. Technology is effecting our mental abilities and we don’t put much effort in our researches, which is convincing the danger of the technology and internet.

The essay Is Google Making Us Stupid by the author Nicholas Carr, was originally a cover article of The Atlantic in 2008. The purpose of his work is to warn the technology users of the negative effects that these devices have in humans. Carr starts the essay with a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in which one of the characters describes how his mind and the way he reads is changing by the time since he has been using a computer. He is no longer able to spend hours reading, describes how to get concentrate in a long paragraphs is difficult to him. The fact of how fast the internet works, forces his brain to process information the way Net does.

American writer, Nicholas G. Carr, in The Atlantic July/ August 2008 Issue titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” argues that the amount of time we spend online, especially google, has caused us to lose our minds by “tinkering” with our brains, “reprograming our memory,” and changing the way in which we process information. Carr’s purpose is to contribute to the idea that “Google” along with other online tools, is programing us to be less attentive and to the inhibition of our critical thinking skills. Guided by personal experiences, subjectivity, presumptions, Carr concludes that our reliance on google and other online apparatuses has caused us to become “machinelike,” claiming that the understanding we have of the world and is “mediated” by computers, flattening our intelligence and converting it into artificial intelligence with no value. Carr’s theory is un-logical because it is based on presumptions that overgeneralize the role that online tools like google play on our lives, based on the experiences and opinions of a few. By ignoring the complexities of these tools and the numerous features they have to offer which help enable us to expand our way of thinking and analyzing information, Carr incorrectly assumes that because the amount of information we are gathering and attaining from online apparatuses like google, that we are becoming hollow computer like entities with little to no intelligence.

In his essay, “Is Google Making us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr addresses the fears that many people share about the World Wide Web: that it is rerouting our brains, making it difficult to concentrate effectively. Carr uses personal experiences about his loss of concentration that has become more evident after using the internet. Rather than reading texts in-depth, our brains have become accustomed to skimming over information. Carr’s view on technology is that by relying on knowledge that we are being handed, we are becoming humans with artificial thoughts. He fears the internet could be a monster living in our homes. He is afraid of technology making us an indolent race. I think that the internet can make us lazy, but that doesn’t necessarily correlate to becoming “stupid.” Carr only focuses on the negative altercations that the internet has on our lives. Due to this, he comes off as oblivious to the transformation that we are undergoing with this new technology. The internet is making us change our focus from absorbing time consuming information. Instead, we have shifted our attention to learning information in a timely manner. Over the years, more ways to access the internet have emerged, opening up a whole new world for us. Instead of socializing and working in print, we are delving into a “visual world.” Alternatively, we are being introduced into being able to personally create, develop and consume information. Hearing information from a teacher is being substituted for

He explains how when reading on the Internet, we go from page to page affecting our concentration. Carr believes that the Internet has caused a lack of concentration in people’s ability to read long articles. Carr gives many examples of the studies that had been done on the enduring effects of the Internet on concentration and contemplation. People’s minds expect to process high speed data like the way the Internet hands out it, so the Internet is doing the work of their minds. Carr admits that the Internet had covered the other intellectual technologies that people use. As a result; it is becoming more important and valuable. Moreover, Carr discusses the role of Google in Internet usage, and its work on building an artificial intelligence which has the potential to display human agency in a variety of industries because of its ability to complete tasks in a much shorter time. Ultimately, Carr concludes that people should not rely on computers because it will demolish their own intelligence with relying so much on the artificial

In his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, author Nicholas Carr discusses his belief that the internet is negatively changing the way people’s brains process and consume information. Carr describes this phenomenon when he writes, “as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence” (328). Carr’s point is that the less effort put into reading and researching caused by societies constant access to the internet, lessens deep thinking and mental growth, which in turn results in a loss of individualism in our society. Incidentally, in his article, “Smarter than you Think”, writer Clive Thompson agrees with Carr’s statement by saying, “Today’s multitasking tools really do make it harder than before to stay focused during long acts of reading and contemplation” (355). However, Thompson goes on to argue that the benefits humans derive from the advancements being made in technology outweigh the possible risks in changes to cognitive functions caused by the melding of man with machine. Thompson builds his argument by examining how the game of chess has evolved

Over the course of years technology has expanded tremendously. In the beginning being in the library trying to look up information was the norm. Now in the 20th century everything is literally at our fingertips. Google has become a necessity for many people. For example, if a computer came without google or and other search engine would a person still buy it. Would they be willing to go and take the time to do research elsewhere? Is the dependency of google and the internet in general affecting our everyday thinking and how we run our lives? Nicholas Carr and a few others questioned this theory.