Is Google Making Us Stupid?
How long is the Nile River? How do I take out a loan? Where do babies come from? Nowadays, instead of the long searches after a trip to the library, creeping through the old books collecting dust on our parent’s shelves and even looking through an encyclopedia, instead we would find the answers these answers through a quick Google search. Google, introduced to the public September of 1997, is a commonly used search engine all over the internet. Google is roughly an amazing 40% of the internet. From toddler to teen to senior citizen, we use Google as a crutch for our daily information. But to say that Google is making us stupid is not necessarily right? Google more so is making us dependant on fast-paced information, and therefore diluting our sense of concentration and our ability to receive and maintain that information.
Nicholas Carr, author of the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” wrote about his experience with the search engine and how it’s literally changing the way his thought process receives information. Carr writes, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think… my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.” Google is a high-speed search engine that spoils us with information on whatever we want within a few clicks of a button. As of opposed to searching through hours of books and encyclopedias, Google is a more time efficient source for knowledge. The problem with this instrument isn’t that it’s making us stupid per
Nicholas Carr’s Atlantic Online article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” discusses how the use of the computer affects our thought process. Carr starts out talking about his own experience as a writer and how he felt like “something had been tinkering with his brain, remapping his neural circuitry and reprogramming his memory”. Since starting to use the Internet his research techniques have changed. Carr said before he would immerse himself in books, lengthy articles and long stretches of prose allowing his “mind to get caught up in the narrative or the arguments”(July/August 2008, Atlantic Monthly). Today Carr has found that “his concentration drifts away from the text after several pages and he struggles to get
Among the era of rapid development of science and technology, information technology, which is internet influences our lives, studies, and communications and works in every moment. We could use the internet to look for the required knowledge and help anytime we needed. In his essay "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"Nicholas Carr uses his personal experience and research results to illustrate the impact internet create on its user. Although the title of the statement mentions the influence created by the searching engine, Google, the article also has describes some subtle changes that have happened on human brain and body during the progress of the technology. As a web writer, the author is
The Article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, has a persuasive and emphasized narrative, into depicting how the Internet has taken prominence of the human mind, explaining that people in todays modern age have lost the aptitude to engage deep reading, because the internet has revolutionized into a manipulating tool, that lets us easily access information with a simple click of a button from a computer and the result is that we are becoming insipid readers. Furthermore, he continues to criticize the Internet as a power system that extracts data from search engines to control the way that humans thinks and to distracts us so they can attain ultimate power over us. Carr, has a strong argument but fails to acknowledge the fact, that our
For almost two decades, Google has surely been the top dog of search engines on the worldwide internet. Beginning as a research project by two college students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, called Backrub, Google has now become the answer to all questions. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it accessible and useful. According to Niholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” he states that our use of the internet has serious effects on the way we real, think, and live. Carr’s struggle along with his friends who he’s said are experiencing these same struggles, seem to be putting the blame on the internet for their lack of attentiveness, when there can be other underlying issues other than excessive use of the web affecting your brain.
According to Nicholas Carr, whose essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (July/August 2008 Atlantic) points out that relying on internet too much is rewiring our brain, which makes it harder for us to concentrate
The title of Carl Zimmer's essay "How Google is making is smarter" is self-explanatory. According to Zimmer, Google has improved rather than impeded the ability of people to effectively express themselves. Zimmer sees the Internet fundamentally as an extension of the mind, rather than something which impedes the natural ability of the mind to critically assess and process information. Does it really make us 'stupid' if we use MapQuest rather than remember directions; use spell check rather than remember spellings; or look up facts and figures with Google rather than a paper-based encyclopedia? Zimmer says 'no.'
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Summary “And what the net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the net distributes it: In a swiftly moving stream of particles. ”(Carr-737.)
Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is a piece that will open the eyes of any internet user. He explains his own issues with lack of focus when reading long novels and says it is a product of the interweb’s shaping. As Google becomes more and more part of our daily lives, it is having a negative effect on our information processes and interpretations. In effect, its current use is preventing us from retaining information and to be able to think, comprehend, and be inquisitive.
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
In a society where computers are used on a daily basis, is there a chance that Google is affecting our minds in a negative way? Nicholas Carr, who has written many articles on technology, business, and culture, argues that the use of Google is steadily making us less intelligent. Although, in most aspects most people may agree with what Carr is saying, but where is the experimental evidence that shows if Google is actually making us stupid? The argument that Carr presents in "Is Google Making Us Stupid" is difficult to fully side with considering he fails to present actual evidence, while relying only on his assumptions from his own experiences, and the viewpoints of other writers.
Did you ever wonder if technology is making us smarter or making us stupider? Google was invented in September 4, 1998, since then people argue that our lives have gotten easier making us lazier. I believe after reading the articles provided, that Google has made humanity lose some brain cells. Due to the fact that we are becoming lazier, we are thinking less, and we are becoming less social.
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
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.
In the July-August 2008 Atlantic magazine, Nicholas Carr published "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google). In this article Nicolas Carr argues that the internet is changing how one thinks, and how it is causing a bad effect on one’s brain. I have to disagree. Although the internet is constantly changing, it helps in a positive way. Firstly, google has become a great resource for educational purposes. Secondly, the internet has become a great resource for intercultural experiences. Due to the general population spending most of their time on computer’s and smart phones, this information is accessible to us whenever needed.
People are adapting, and changing their approach of how they seek knowledge: From hours, and hours of researching in the library to find information, to a five-second research on the internet with a click of a button? In an ever-changing world, humans are evolving with the ease of technology. The google search engine allows the users to search anything with the tip of their fingers. The World Wide Web has billions of website with information. People can search anything they want to know about. The innovation of the Google search engine surpassed its competitors because of its sophisticated algorithm. Is the Google search engine changing the way we think? Some people believe Google is making people stupid because