Is Google Making Us Stupid Summary

Technology has evolved so much over the course of 82 years. People who were living in 1935 would have no clue what a computer is or what it could potentially become. Education itself and how we learn has come a long way. Everything was hand written. Now in 2017, we have every answer with just one touch of a button. Google is a search engine that holds almost every answer in the world. There are many opinions on the way humans in 2017 function, and process information. Nicholas carr is a respect author who writes about the relationship between technology and culture. He has written for the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, etc. He has written two great essay that have won The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best collected in Several Anthologies, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, and The Best Technology Writing. One of them which is titled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid.”  Nicholas Carr argues that Google is not making humans stupid, but as technology progress our minds must adapt and change the way we think and process information. This essay has many rhetorical approaches. Nicholas Carr uses imagery, opinion, ethos, and pathos to persuade his audience, provoking a doubt on whether google is making humans stupid.

In the article, “Is Google Making us Stupid?”, one could see that there is an issue at hand. With the growth of technology since the early 2000s, the use of the internet has been our, as a culture, source for information. There is so much information that people could not possibly be able to sift through it all. This metaphorical mound of information has occupied our minds as humans, jumping point to point. With the accumulation of data that is at our fingertips, people are being challenged to think, reason, and to read. How then, can we achieve this with all the information but without the ability?

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 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.

In the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” the author spends time on telling the reader the possible harms of the internet and how it can shorten the attention span of constant users of the internet. while reading more and more into the essay, one will notice many instances that make me believe that the author of the essay fears technology and dreads when artificial intelligence comes out in the future.

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.

Technology, especially the Internet, makes humans’ life easier and more effective. A quick access to information brings people a huge opportunity to explore the world and develop them. However, Nicolas Carr, in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” argues that technology affects people’s life, it changes their mind and actions, and humans start to lose abilities of “deep thinking and deep reading”, which are essential skills of being humans. In other words, our world becomes more simplified that people are unable to be smart and creative as they were in the past. For him, today’s people think and act in the frame of programmed world of the Net. Moreover, although Carr worries that the Net based corporations, such as Google, are seeking to replace human’s

One of the most common clichés is that the Internet has robbed us of our attention spans and impeded our ability to communicate effectively. Once we could write properly, now we only text. Google has made us lazy in terms of how we research and access data. However, is this true? In three major news publications, three major essayists have grappled with this question and come to completely different conclusions. Although the neurological evidence in support of the 'Internet is stealing our brains' thesis is mixed, there is at minimum evidence that people 'feel' as though the Internet has changed their ability to express themselves and to synthesize information.

Nicholas Carr argues in his essay for The Atlantic “Is Google Making Us Stupid” that the internet is changing the way we think. Mr. Carr began his essay with the closing scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey movie by Stanly Kubrick when Gary Lockwood “Dave” taking apart the memory circuits that control HAL 9000, the computer that controls the ship. Carr introduces us in his essay on the idea of how the internet is changing us by making our minds process information differently from the past. Carr can’t focus or contemplate any article on the internet anymore, he points out the story of two bloggers Scott Karp and Bruce Friedman who also have the same problem and they feel the internet is responsible. A recent study has been conducted by University College London which suggests that there may be some evidence which proves that the internet is affecting our brains in a negative way. Even though we know the internet is useful and we use it for almost in every aspect of our lives but it is also changing the way our brain process information. Maryanne Wolf the developmental psychologist believes that our ability for deep reading is being weakened by the way the internet provides easy access to unlimited information. Wolf believes that reading is not an instinctive skill and therefore we have to train our brains so we can understand and interpret symbols into a language we can understand. A study shows that our mental system is performing a function differently depending on the

American writer, Nicholas G. Carr, in The Atlantic July/ August 2008 Issue titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” argues that the amount of time we spend online, especially google, has caused us to lose our minds by “tinkering” with our brains, “reprograming our memory,” and changing the way in which we process information. Carr’s purpose is to contribute to the idea that “Google” along with other online tools, is programing us to be less attentive and to the inhibition of our critical thinking skills. Guided by personal experiences, subjectivity, presumptions, Carr concludes that our reliance on google and other online apparatuses has caused us to become “machinelike,” claiming that the understanding we have of the world and is “mediated” by computers, flattening our intelligence and converting it into artificial intelligence with no value. Carr’s theory is un-logical because it is based on presumptions that overgeneralize the role that online tools like google play on our lives, based on the experiences and opinions of a few. By ignoring the complexities of these tools and the numerous features they have to offer which help enable us to expand our way of thinking and analyzing information, Carr incorrectly assumes that because the amount of information we are gathering and attaining from online apparatuses like google, that we are becoming hollow computer like entities with little to no intelligence.

As I read the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicolas Carr, I cannot help but see the influence of how internet use can affect your thinking ability and create a negative effect on how think. We can use the internet for all sorts of resources in our daily lives but, the problem is that nobody puts the work in anymore and is finding the fastest way to get the “A,” while not grasping the concept resulting in them not being knowledgeable in their field of work. By them just skimming instead of understanding, they are not fully learning. For example, many of us can look at something and not remember what it was that we looked at the following day. This paper will be discussing the pros and cons of Nicolas Carr’s thoughts on Google, and how the search engine turned GPS, email, and so on is affecting the brains of today.

In Nicholas Carr’s article entitled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” he explains that the up rise of computers, and technology, has taken a toll on the former ability to read and understand what is being read. Suddenly, what was once so simple is now a prolonged, agonizing task which readers like Carr have experienced. The infamous internet has become the basis for information people seek to collect. Personally, I think Carr’s interpretation of the increase in technology is most accurate when referring to the overtake of artificial intelligence, the inability to read small to large amounts of written work, and the obvious change in the way we think as a person.

A teacher has assigned their class a research paper that is due next week. A student opens their computer and goes to Google and types in their topic to find links that will help them in their research. Instead of going to a library and cracking open a book, the internet is the go-to resource. Before the internet and search engines will Google, students and other individuals would have to read books for hours, maybe even days, to find the answers they are looking for. Now, that’s changed. With a touch of a button, everyone can type their question into Google, whether it be what 2+2 equals or how playing video games affects development. No matter what the question may be, the answer can be found with ease. In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” author

What you think you become”-Buddha. If we can’t think critically for ourselves without Google then what are we? As newborns our minds are in the early stages of development and are unable to read or comprehend. To quote Nicholas Carr’s 2008 article, Is Google Making us Stupid, “We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into language we understand” Whether you’re reading a textbook, a comic book, or diary we process these words into thoughts, ideas, and information. We often absorb information from these sources at libraries, a quiet room, or on our commute to school and work. Even though Google has dominated the way we retrieve information they’re individuals who prefer retaining information from a

With each passing day we advance more and more technologically, carving another notch into the timeline of humanity’s progress. Of all advancements, I think it fair to say the Internet is one of the largest, marking the beginning of the information era we now live in. The birth of the World Wide Web gave way to the creation of search engines with Google in particular being the stand-out, setting the precedent which other search engines would follow. Contrary to the ideas shared in Nicholas Carr's article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" I believe that Google provides a near-constant flow of knowledge at our fingertips should we simply seek it, making it an indispensable tool in growing the mind. The article discusses the ideas