Is Google Making Us Stupid?

As time progresses in our technologically propelled era and the internet continues to provide as the largest network source of information, our intellectual perception of information takes on a more distinctive and less analytical approach than before. The use of the internet has seized control over the vast connection of neural pathways in our minds, influencing our experiences and essentially hindering our natural ability to apply cognitive thinking.

And the internet, allows avid readers to find the top ten books of 2015 so they can go buy them and read them, instead of wasting, possibly days, trying to find a book that sounds interesting. Technology has created a source of unfathomable information where many can find more information on an article they read and spend hours reading up on them. Technology does not cause distractions but it gives a vibe of impatience because people are working quicker and more efficiently and therefore move on to the next

The internet and the invention of improved technology are growing rapidly. It allowed us to do complex jobs without having to spend as long as we had to by doing it manually. The internet is a vast source, it involves many people working together to create an opportunity for everyone to get easy and fast information without having to pick up a book. With a click of a mouse button we have tons of information right in front of our computer screen. So is having easy access and having improved technology doing us harm or being beneficial to us?

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

Many people may argue that technology has helped us become more efficient in today’s society. Technological advances such as the internet and Google has also opened up many new opportunities for people. However, with such advances some may argue that we begin to lose some of our cognitive thinking ability. In an essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, he argues his thesis that people will lose concentration and cognitive thinking as a result to reading online. Carr begins by explaining how the many innovations of today’s technologies has changed the way one thinks. Carr continues by saying that the internet is affecting peoples concentration, however they use it for its convenience; to quickly scan an article and avoid “the traditional way of reading.” Carr then explains how Maryanne Wolf believes that the new style of reading has altered our ability to interpret and make deep mental connections. Carr shows support of how Frederick Nietzsche enhanced his style of writing beginning with a type writer in 1882. Carr then explains how neuroscience professor James Olds, discovered that nerve cells break apart and form new connections to form new habits. As explained by Danielle Bell and Lewis Mumford, Carr says intellectual technologies such as the mechanical clock, has divided action and thought; helping create the scientific method in a series of steps. Carr then explains how Alan Turning discovered that computers could be used as information processing device;

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 one of the many technologies to come about in this fast pace and ever evolving world. Within these new technologies, such as the internet, one can see how even people have evolved and changed their ways of thinking to keep up. One aspect of this change is the way people understand and think about what they read or see. In Nicholas Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid, the author present the idea that the use of the internet is the reason behind the changes within the minds of its users. This idea points towards the internet being both a mind altering and convenience mechanism; as well as being easily abused by its users. This allows Carr to effectively propose the idea that the internet, and technology in general, is used not only as a convenience mechanism, but also has a way to change how its uses think. However, Carr ineffectively represents how this change comes about due to user abuse of new technology like the internet.

With new technological advancements occurring more rapidly each year, it is no surprise that there is an extensive conversation about how these new progressions impact the brain’s development and cognition. One trend is evident: there is a universal acknowledgment that technology is indeed changing the way we think. Among the members contributing to this conversation, two strikingly different outlooks on how these changes will affect the future exist. Either we should be terrified, or worrying is premature. Articles written by experts specializing in psychology and the brain, such as Pinker’s “Mind Over Mass Media,” as well as "How Has the Internet Reshaped Human Cognition?" by Kee and Loh, as well as and finally “Children, Wired- for

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.

In our modern day society, it is extremely common for one idea to be represented in many different ways. Both Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and M.T Anderson’s novel Feed, the broad idea of the relationship between humans and technology is portrayed. Carr’s article complains of how technology changes the way we think. Carr instigates the idea that we are losing our passion for learning as a result of the internet and search engines such as Google. These advancements, Carr proposes, lead to a world where our intelligence “flattens into artificial intelligence”. In a similar fashion, Anderson’s fictional novel addresses a set of characters who live on our planet at an arbitrary time in the future. These characters, or at least most of them, have their lives completely controlled by technology, in the form of an implanted chip, which represents to its followers the feed, a social networking site of sorts that is all-encompassing. The story shows how these technological advancements have irreversibly changed the world of the characters, where the characters are not themselves without technology. Both pieces extensively address the relationship between man and technology. While the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and the novel Feed stem from two completely different genres, both pieces encapsulate the idea that technology is leading to a loss of individuality among people.

Nicholas Carr, the author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” believed that as technology improves, we lose a little bit of ourselves in the process. I think that he is right, as I look around I see people not even able to hold a conversation without looking at their phone or tablets. Practices that used to be a normal thing people learned before technology improves, now people rely on their phone to do those things now. The days where people had to remember phone number and birthdays are over, those things are now programed into cell phone and electronic calendars. Only a few years ago people had to go to the library to get information and we would remember that information for some time, for these reasons I believe that technology is making people dumber and dumber.

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 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.

Old generations work harder when doing a research paper, they are always busy with their work. Before the internet, people had always done their work by reading books, and they learn how to analyse it, and comprehend the meaning of the book. People were more active outside, they were healthier, and more intellectual. They also socialized more with individuals and they were less isolated. The internet makes people lazier, isolated, and more self-centered.

What effect does modern digital technology have on individuals who rely on it heavily in their everyday lives? Innovations such as video games, internet search engines, and online databases receive great praise as well as great criticism depending on who answers this question. Nicholas Carr and Steven Johnson have both written pieces stating their opinions on technology’s effect on the human brain. Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” explains how accessing information quickly and easily through search engines like Google negatively alters the way people seek and read information and think. Johnson’s book “Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter” covers the positive attributes of digital technology, video games in particular. He explains how video games are intellectually stimulating and help develop complex skills. Digital technology has interesting effects on the different processes of our mind.