Are Smartphones Making USupid Analysis

Another point as to why I believe smartphones may be hurting us is through my own personal experiences that align with the statistics Twinge wrote about. In the article Twinge states “parents may be inclined to encourage their kids to stay home and study rather than to

While reading a famous article by Nicholas Carr titled “Is Google Making us Stupid?,” I have concluded that it is not. I disagree with Carr’s argument because his view point corresponds with how technology is advancing. The way that the internet has shaped our lives has taken a great toll on the way we view the world now. There are a couple of ways that technology is improving. One would include books that are paperback turning into nooks and kindles along with blogging and texting. Another study shows that our brains are also changing and growing along with the internet. This shows that technology had advanced from the 70’s and 80’s when there wasn’t widespread access to the internet.

Many times our fears of what is unknown to us are often the strongest fears we hold as human beings. However, what if it was the fear of things we already know that were the most powerful and influential in our lives? In modern society, many hold within themselves a deep-seated fear of the technology that the world has become so revolved around. Additionally, it has recently become debatable whether or not this technology has become a hindrance to members of the so-called iGeneration, born between 1995 and 2012, who have grown up in a world surrounded by technology. Truly, the members of older generations, including millennials who have had themselves split off from the apparent technology obsessed generation of the youngest millennials, have expressed their concern as to whether or not these vast differences in generations have to do with the unhealthy use of technology. Among those to have analyzed this phenomenon is writer Jean M. Twenge who in her article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?,” utilizes the study of a modern 13 year old girl named Athena to exemplify a plethora of determinants that technology has imposed on young people and the slow deterioration of everything from independence and social skills to a decline mental health due to technology use. Many of Twenge’s statements reveal the belief that many members of iGen are unequipped to handle adulthood and are even less happy because of the technology that has played a significant role in their lives

Today, smartphones are everywhere. Just about everybody uses them from the time they get up, to the time they go to bed. With this personal tool, a lot of people have seen positive effects from using the device. However, some believe that people are going to far with a smartphone and that now it’s becoming more than a personal companion. This is what Nicholas Carr believes in “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds.” In the essay Carr argues that smartphones are having a negative effect on people’s minds. He strengthens his argument by use of fact, word choice, and emotional appeal.

Studies have found that as the phone use increases, your attention goes elsewhere, “revealing that the more heavily student relied on their phones in their everyday lives, the greater the cognitive penalty they suffered” (Carr 3). The more focus a cell phone receives the more a person will suffer mentally. At UCSD around 520 students were given two standardized tests of intellectual acuity. “The only variable in the experiment was the location of the subjects’ smartphones. Some of the students.. place their phones in front of them on their desks; others were told to stow their phones in their pockets.. others were required to leave their phones in a different room” (Carr 3). The results from this study were conspicuous. It’s self-evident that anyone with phone insight had worst scores than those who didn't have their phones at all or had them in their pockets. Technology has take over us and it is draining our

Nicholas Carr in the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” argues that the more people use technology, the more it’s making people stupid. Throughout the article he mentions many examples where he proves himself correct. Google is making us stupid because it’s affecting our concentration the more we rely on technology.

Is your smartphone like your closest companion and friend ; I can say mine’s is! Smartphones are new and addictive in the world. According to the article “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds” by Nicholas Carr cellular devices have become addictive and seized our brain functionality. In “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds” by Nicholas Carr, the author uses rhetorical devices such as strong diction, supporting data, and cites studies to strengthen his opinion of the captivity that smartphones possess over our brains.

Even though smart phones are supposed to make working easier, studies have shown that they actually hurt our performance. In 2015, a Journal of Experimental Psychology study had 166 people to test. The experiment was to have the participants work on a challenging task while their phones start beeping and buzzing. The results showed that the worker became messier and had their attention elsewhere, whether or not they checked their phone. Dr. Adrian Ward is a psychologist and marketing professor at the University of Texas at Austin, he has been working with the effects of smart phones on our thoughts and decision making. Dr. Ward believes that we have grown so attached to our phones that they reduce our intelligence with their presence. To test this theory, Dr. Ward and three colleagues began a clever experiment to test his idea. They decided to enlist 520 undergraduate students at UCSD and make them perform two standard tests of intellectual acuity. The first test evaluated “available cognitive capacity”, it’s a test to measure how fully a person’s mind can focus on a single task. The second test gauged “fluid intelligence”, a person’s ability to understand and answer an unfamiliar problem. The only difference was the location of the student’s smart phone. Some students had their phone on the desk, while others had it in their bag or pocket. Others were even asked to leave their phone in a different room. The results of this test showed that “As the phone’s proximity increased, brainpower decreased” (pg.3).

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.

The uses of technology like computers and cell phones are growing every day with new uses and forms. There are mixed feelings about if technology is making us smarter or stupider thru out day to day life. Nicolas Carr a New York Times writer wrote an article about “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and he tries to show people that computers are making our lives simpler and there for making us as humans stupid. Another writher that goes by the name Greg is a writer for digitaltonto.com, and he found the previous article and wrote “How Computers Change the Way We learn” which is about how all lot of the facts in Carr article could have been read to say anything that the author wanted, so he could make people believe.

With technology on the rise, I see more and more of the human population with their heads buried in their phones. A few of the reasons why they allow the weight of their head to stoop down low is Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Gmail, Google, and Snapchat just to name a few. As my girlfriend would say, who does Kahala Mall’s marketing, “everything is heading in the direction of social media. If you are not with social media you are not with it.” Keep in mind, as she is stating this, I am barking at the fact that she is constantly on her phone. In Nicholas Carr’s essay Is Google Making Us stupid: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains he argues that the internet, technology, and the forces of Google, is changing the way we think. Not only does

There are many contradictable pieces of evidence that are used throughout the article, “Have Smart Phones Destroyed a Generation?”, by Jean M. Twenge. Some of the evidence utilized, can be very manipulative towards the readers. By Twenge including some of her opinions in this article, what and how the readers should feel about smartphones changes. It has negative aspects and becomes very strict on what she is portraying to the readers. Twenge has some good evidence and arguments in this article, but it turns out to be weak because she is using insufficiency, irrelevance, and typicality.

The general arguments made by Todd Leopold and Doug Gross is that cell phones are a big part in the lives of people today. More specifically Leopold argues that cellphones are taking people’s imagination and creativity away. Leopold writes in this passage “ If you want to get any creativity thinking done, shut off the damned smart phone and detach, reflect and recharge.” In this passage, Leopold is suggesting that in order for people to think for themselves they have to let go off their phones and detach themselves from any technology.. A point made by author Doug Gross suggest cell phone use in today’s society is an addition. More specifically, Gross shares a study from an anthropology professor at the University of Alabama, that says just

It is said that smartphones are a substantial distraction and cause us to make poor judgements (Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception & Performance).

Smartphones are used every day around the world and nearly sixty-four percent of Americans own one. Smartphones and their impact on the human brain is a question of controversy. Do smartphones really indeed make us dumber? Phones may be part of our everyday lives, but they certainly are not making us dumber in society. Phones make us more educated and keep us more informed of our surroundings. They also allow us to socialize more in a society that likes to spread information on the internet. Phones are a positive source of knowledge, even though many would disagree. The usage of a phone improves our mentality to think and learn in an efficient way that we carry with us every way we go. Smartphones do not make unintelligent people in society,