Analysis Of Nicolas Carr's 'Is Google Making USupid'

A huge beneficial effect of the Internet is time-efficiency because it no longer takes days to find research. Fortunately, it only takes a couple of minutes to do a few Google searches. Another benefit to the Internet, in comparison to the last example, is that it is a channel for most of the world’s information. For Carr, as for others, the Internet is becoming a universal medium. Lastly, it is probable that we may be doing more reading today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was a choice of interest. It is assumed that we may do more reading today because not only do we have access to a variety of texts, but also a numerous amount of ways of communicating. For example, social media accounts and text-messaging. A negative effect of the Internet is that it is chipping away capacity for contemplation. The Internet is

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

He supports his ideas with multiple studies showing the positive and negative effects of internet and computer use has on our mental and physiological abilities. Starting from the most general collection of studies, he found, he places the framework for his argument. Patricia Greenfield’s collection and analysis echo Carr’s own evidence for the ill effects from internet distractions and quick page touring, especially the ever faster shifts of focus we require to remain entertained in an activity. He continues his path of logic with the results of a school centered study on the effects of internet surfing on focus. Cornell University’s Study came to a similar conclusion as Patricia Greenfields did but coming from the other way. Where a situation where constant attention on a singular topic was required, and the distractions affected student’s performance on a quiz following a lecture. Finally, he points out the general trend in declining cognitive skills from internet exposure. Out of an almost evenly split group of 101 subjects with various exposure to daily

“The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (Carr 773). Carr’s point is because people are using the web, it is making it harder for them to concentrate and process information. Carr and Turkle both suggest in their articles that people now have lost the ability to be able to concentrate and to be

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

Essentially, he bluntly says throughout his article that the Internet and search engines such as Google are “making us stupid”. He goes on to explain how the rise of the internet is adverse to the intellectual mind because it is starting to replace physical reading, and reading allows for “intellectual vibrations” to be “set off” within the minds of the people (Carr 28). However, it clear to see that as technology evolves, so does the world and its views on what is considered to be intellectual. While people may not be reading as many physical books anymore, they do tend to educate themselves on the world around them in other ways. Even on seemingly casual social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram, people speak out about what they understand and feel about the world around them, showing how “intellectual vibrations” are now set off differently than in years past. A technology press conference, a controversial social media post, or a compelling article from an online news source could get a person to deeply think about something just any form of physical print would be able to; this is made evident by how the younger generations are currently using the Internet and its sites. In fact, Carr even quotes an Italian humanist by the name of Hieronimo Squarciafico who stated that the introduction of the Gutenberg printing press and readily available publications would make men “less studious” (28). However, the introduction of readily available literature has proven to have had the opposite effect, with the most studious of people accepting books and other printed publications as some of their most treasured intellectual resources. In the same way, a parallel can be drawn to the Internet, which will likely turn out to be a blessing for intellectuals around the world just as the printing press was all those years ago. With knowledge and

Nicholas Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid? explains the impact the Internet is having on his (and others) patience with in depth reading habits, and possibly the way their brain is processing information. The old days of having to spend hours researching a subject are long gone because of the Internet. Having such a powerful tool available at any time can be a good and bad thing wrapped up in the same package. Over the last couple decades, home computer and smartphone ownership has been on a steady rise with most homes now having multiple devices. Therefore, having unlimited information available at all times has become a reality.

Although its intention was to nourish our minds with an instant unlimited source of valuable information, the internet has caused some people to lose their appreciation for long texts and their ability to concentrate. Within the essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, the author feels that someone has been tinkering with his brain and that he can no longer enjoy reading a book of any length because he cannot sustain concentration on the book (Carr 1). This is a result of the fact that when people use the internet to find information, they habituate themselves to skim along the lines to quickly allocate their answers and once they have gotten what they needed, they close the browser without any further analysis of the information.

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 page, it has turned to more of a skimming method. Nicholas Carr realizes that we may be doing more reading than ever due to the internet, but it is different in the way that people have to interpret the text. Reading, unlike talking, is not a natural ability. One must learn to deep read, make connections, and translate the underlying meaning. Overall, Carr believes it is a mistake to rely fully on computers because in the end, it will just be our own intelligence that morphs into artificial intelligence.

In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains”, Nicholas Carr points out the fact that google is affecting our brains. He explains how being able to access information more quickly is minimizing the amount of thinking we have to do on our own and therefore preventing our brain to do deep thinking. On the second paragraph the author says, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it more strongly when I’m reading”. I strongly agree with the author’s point because when I used to live in the Dominican Republic I didn’t have access to google and had to go to the library and check out books to do my homework assignments. I wasn’t intimidated by the length of the reading and was able to find the

In his Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr contends that the overload of information is “chipping away his capacity for concentration and contemplation”(315). He admits with easy accessibility of information online, the process of research has became much simpler(Carr 315). Yet such benefit comes with a cost. Our brains are “rewired” as the cost of such convenience(Carr 316). As the result, “we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s...but it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking”(Carr 317). Carr argues the forming of such habits can prevent us from deep reading and thinking. In fact, he provides may evidences in the

As the internet offers us the benefits of quick and easy knowledge, it is affecting the brain’s capacity to read longer articles and books. Carr starts Is Google Making Us Stupid with the closing scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey when Dave taking apart the memory circuits that control HAL, the artificial brain of the ship. Carr feels the time he spends online is rewiring his brain. He is no longer able to concentrate long enough to read more than a few paragraphs. Even though the internet is useful, it seems to be changing the way our brain takes in information. He feels as though this brain wants to take information in the same way the internet disperses it: in

In Nicholas Carr's article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” the point he is trying to make is that the internet has become the worlds main source of information and entertainment, and its starting to effect how people read and how fast they can find and interpret information. The author states that even though internet makes the process much faster and more efficient it makes our brains miss the learning curve that helps us fully understand the deep and thought provoking novels or articles.

The internet is our conduit for accessing a wide variety of information. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr discusses how the use of the internet affects our thought process in being unable to focus on books or longer pieces of writing. The author feels that “someone, or something, has been tinkering with [his] brain” over the past few years (Carr 731). While he was easily able to delve into books and longer articles, Carr noticed a change in his research techniques after starting to use the internet. He found that his “concentration often [started] to drift after two or three pages” and it was a struggle to go back to the text (Carr 732). His assertion is that the neural circuits in his brain have changed as a

The Internet is considered to be a most important source of the knowledge, and it has played a bigger role in our lives. Everyone use the Internet on daily basis in offices, schools, libraries, and other places, around the world. While the Internet has made our lives easier in various ways, our skills in critical thinking and reading skills have declined. Furthermore, people depend too much on the Internet to solve their problems. There are many people who believe that the Internet is negatively affecting our critical thinking and reading skills. On the other hand, there are many people who believe that the Internet improves their critical thinking and reading skills.