Being able to instantly gather information is easier than it has ever been before. People can go on the internet, press a few buttons and are given an endless amount of information. Do not anything about the topic, just Google it and it will provide the information that is needed. It has come to the point where people rely on the internet daily. However, there are downsides to having technology surrounding society most of the time. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid? ” from the July/August 2008 edition of The Atlantic, Nicholas Carr, a writer and former member of Britannica’s Encyclopedia editorial board of advisors, expresses how technology is negatively changing how we think and act because of the influences people get from the technology
This is shown by the article “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” by Matt Richtel when he said “in 2008, people consumed three times as much information each day then they did in 1960.” Before smart phones and laptops people had to look it up in a library if they had a question now people can get it quicker and easier with the power of technology. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” Nicholas Carr states, “The internet contains the world’s best writing, images, and ideas; Google lets us find the relevant pieces instantly.” This shows that if people didn’t have Google, the students would have to look harder to find information that they have the ability to get right at their
In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr explains how the Internet is somewhat removing the way humans tend to concentrate on certain things. He also explains how people think differently then they usually would because of how the Internet may cause them to view things. Even though the Internet may help in a variety of ways, it does influence the way humans may think and learn as a process together. Carr’s argument is effective because he shows the affect the Internet has on humans in ways such as, not being able to read lengthy articles and books, the use of a type writer, and the lack of his own creditability within the article.
Technology nowadays always use to have so much information at our fingertips, but is this a good thing? That is what Jamais Cascio’s “Get Smarter” and Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” both discuss; they specifically address the effects that new technology, such as the internet, has on the way humans think. The difference is that Carr argues that this new technology is making us stupid while Cascio argues that it is making us smarter. Nicholas Carr’s article discusses the negative effects of the internet and technology like it. It specifically mentions slight changes in the way people do things because of the influence of technology and gives many historical and anecdotal examples. Jamais Cascio’s article is about the advancements of technology and how it is makes people smarter. Cascio talks about Twitter, mental enhancement drugs and AIs, focusing a lot on the benefits of the advancements.
Over history technology has changed mankind’s overall culture. From clocks to computers the use of electronics and tools is occurring every day in almost all situations. In Carr’s article “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he introduces the idea how the internet is changing our lives by making us mentally process information differently from the past, based off previous changes in history. Carr explains how we think less deeply and rely on quick facts, versus using critical thinking and research. Also he explains how our brain is malleable, and may be changed by the internet’s impression. Lastly Carr talks about what the
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.
It is true that people are becoming more and more reliant on the internet to do everyday tasks. I feel that Carr addresses the issue perfectly in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid”. If we continue to use technology for everything, we will eventually lose all ability to deep read and make those critical connections that are necessary for true comprehension and application. He indicates that “the more [he] uses the web, the more he has to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (736). Knowing how difficult it was to read and analyze Carr’s article myself, I fully agree with his claims. Having grown up in a world that has always had technology, I must be hyper-cognizant of the task at hand when it comes to something such as reading, particularly if it is something that I deem less than interesting. When I was finally able to get through the entire essay, I started to think about how much I use the internet. I must admit that
“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
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.
Nicholas Carr’s 2008 article in The Atlantic, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, argues that the Internet and access to vast amounts of information is corroding the attention spans and thought complexity of the billions of Internet users around the world. As Carr himself puts it, “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) He proposes that having many different sources at once will cause readers to skip around sporadically rather than thoughtfully consume information, and that Google has an agenda to cause this behavior due to their economic interests. Overall, Carr paints a cynical outlook on the prevalence in Google and any societal changes stemming from its use. David Weir’s 2010
Author Nicholas Carr poses the question “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” This has set off a debate on the effects the internet is having on our brains. Obviously the internet is here to stay, but is it making us scatterbrained? Are we losing the ability to think deeply? Criticism of the Web most often questions whether we are becoming more superficial and scattered in our thinking. In the July-August 2008 Atlantic magazine, Nicholas Carr published "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google). Like other critics, he sees change as a loss and not as a gain. The benefits of the internet are real and they are plentiful, but Nicholas Carr says they come at a price.
On Carr's stance on the question, is Google making us stupid, I would be compelled to disagree with him and say that it's actually making us smarter. His idea of saying that we are becoming stupid because of Google is a paradox because we learn so much every day from going to Google and researching something and he's saying that his ability to concentrate is diminishing. Instances that actually enable us to become smarter by using Google would be the way we can instantly find information, because of the internet we are now reading far more than we did in the 1970s, and because of how we read on the internet, we changed our style of reading to a style that puts efficiency and immediacy above everything. We are just adapting to a new type of
We use google or anything on the internet everyday every hour for our own use. Technology gets to our minds and makes us forget even the most common things. “As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence”(Carr 332). We rely on technology more than books this day in age. The last time I saw a kid younger than a six graders reading a book was when they had to do a book report. Kids do not know what reading could do to them. Kids can learn things from the books they read and have fun reading books that they are interested in because it was their favorite movie they saw. All of us rely on technology not just kids, we all use technology because it is right in our hands or on our laps or desk for work. We are too lazy to read a book or article to do our homework, so we just google the answers. Sometimes I wonder what we would do without the use of technology and what would we do if social media was a thing? The world of everyone that uses technology and not being able to would make everyone confused because they do not know what to with their
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is an article that contemplates whether or not google is good for the mind or if it is just making us dumb. They go on to talk about the typewriter and how in that period of time you had to think about what you said and you learned more because there was not internet. You did not read about something online but you read out of a book. Reading online is like reading in bits and pieces. When you read something from the internet you are learning the information in parts, you are not learning the whole story, but a sugar down version. The author (Nicholas Carr) feels that by using google or any internet site we are making our mind much more simple than what it could be. I agree with the fact that google is making us think less and talk differently. Carr says by using the internet for research or online reading we are making ourselves we are losing content, but if we pick up a book we will retain much more information.
Throughout history, no single piece of technology has been so heavily relied upon such as the internet. Things such as the first car, the first telephone, and even the first airplanes were not as easily, or readily accessible as the Net is today. In all reality, the internet is the greatest and most useful tool that humanity has ever dreamt up. From instant transferring of data to endless sources of information, the Net not only connects all corners of the world, but makes each and every person more knowledgeable and self-aware. But as with all new and virtuous things, there is a darker and more dangerous side. The internet is a tool that consumes the intellectual, changing the way the brain functions and ultimately creating a reliance. This reliance is so severe that all of life’s functions depend on the internet without the same dependency being reciprocated. The relationship is one sided, where the Net has much to gain while the user has little. Furthermore, in its relatively new state, the internet is very obscure and has very questionable ethics. Although beneficial in specific cases, the internet affects one’s emotional state and latently mars cognitive function while creating a devastatingly powerful and coercive reliance.
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.