Jim Harper's Essay 'Web Users Get As Much As They Give'

With the rise of the internet, some people argue that privacy no longer exists. From the 2013 revelations of government surveillance of citizens’ communications to companies that monitor their employees’ internet usage, this argument seems to be increasingly true. Yet, Harvard Law professor Charles Fried states that privacy, “is necessarily related to ends and relations of the most fundamental sort: respect, love, friendship and trust” (Fried 477). However, Fried is not arguing that in a world where privacy, in its most simple terms, is becoming scarce that these foundations of human interactions are also disappearing. Instead, Fried expands on the traditional definition of privacy while contesting that privacy, although typically viewed

As Carr continues, he speaks of his extended use of the internet over the last decade, explaining that all information that he once painstakingly searched for is done in minutes with the use of search engines. In doing this, Carr places blame on the internet for breaking his ability to concentrate. Carr presents his arguments in a way that his readers could easily agree. He gradually works up to the idea that the internet has weakened his ability to focus, and as he does this he makes several general statements about the internet’s nature. These points on the net’s nature are so basic that any reader of his article would be inclined to agree with them, and this lends itself to help readers believe the argument Carr wishes to propose. Because it would be hard to provide factual evidence to support his claims, Carr effectively uses logical reasoning to convince the reader.

The author then noted the positive ways the Internet has influenced his life. yet, when he states, “But that boon comes at a price,” his tone immediately changes from appreciative to concerned. This change in tone shows that Carr is beginning to dive deeper into his topic. Additionally, his positive section acts as a counterargument.

Sergey Brin noted, “Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines, unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine.” Nicholas Carr’s essay challenges this assertion. Nicholas Carr believes even though there are multiple search engines, “the faster we surf across the Web-the more links we click and pages we view-the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements.” This topic elicits such strong responses because technology is a part of our everyday lives. Technology is only becoming more advanced and will continue to be a source of debate for all who use it.

In his essay “The Net Is a Waste of Time,” novelist William Gibson analyzes the hidden potentials of the Internet in both its vastness and affect on society. He writes this piece at the dawn of the Internet, and during this undeveloped phase, he discusses its multitude of facts as is and will be. As hinted in the title of his essay, Gibson takes the stance that the Internet at its early stages is a waste of time -- an impressively large and complex waste of time -- but a waste of time nonetheless. He is ultimately concerned with how we are choosing to procrastinate through the Internet, and that our growing attachment and dependence on the Internet reveals a “fatal naïveté” (697) about us. Gibson also brings up the true enormity of the Web even at its premature standing, detailing how “the content of the Web aspires the absolute variety. One might find anything there. It is like rummaging in the forefront of the collective global mind” (697). Despite his concerns on what the Web might become, Gibson realizes that at the time of his writing, the Web was at a stage much like the larval stage of a butterfly’s life -- seems unassuming, but as he himself puts it, “The Web is new, and our response to it has not yet hardened” (697), and that there are “big changes afoot” (696).

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.

Consistently there is some new innovative progression advancing into the world trying to make life simpler for individuals. In the article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?", writer Nicholas Carr clarifies his contemplations on how he trusts the web is risking making individuals loaded with simulated information. Carr starts by clarifying how he feels that the web is bringing on his center issues, how he can never again be totally submerged in a book, and the motivation behind why he gets restless while perusing. He then goes ahead to discuss how his life is encompassed by the web and how that is the fault for the issues he has towards not having the capacity to stay associated with a content; however, in the meantime says how and why the web has been a

Carr is brutally honest with the phrase, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think,” and this truthfulness helps to build Carr ’s ethos and directly address the fact that the internet has changed his actions and his thoughts. He frames his essay with these anecdotes to leave the audience with the image of a personal struggle with technology. At the end of his essay Carr writes, “You should be skeptical of my skepticism. Perhaps those who dismiss critics of the Internet as Luddites or nostalgists will be proved correct...

Carr makes his case by using his own personal experience at the beginning of the argument. Using his own personal experience with internet has helped to reinforce a solid argument. This anecdotal evidence is also used to make a convincing argument. He uses names of individuals and experts’ opinions to illustrate that other persons had the same experience and also feel the same way about the internet. These testimonial evidence makes the argument more credible. The use of historical evidence strengthens his argument based on the fact that some of examples are actually occurring today. This allows the readers to stand on the author’s side of reasoning. Carr also uses factual information about the company of google to convince the readers that

In Jim Harper’s essay “Web Users Get as Much as They Give” (546), he states that “Most web sites track users, particularly through the use of cookies, little text files placed on Web surfers’ computers. Sites use cookies to customize a visitor’s experience.” This does make it hard to have privacy, but what Harper may not have considered is the good things about the cookies being stored. If someone were looking something up and they press the “stay logged in” button, they could close their browser and start back up where they left off, by staying logged in. This helps people who have a bad memory, or who browse the web frequently without remembering all the sites they

Carr writes articles and books on technology, business, and culture, and has written for the Guardian, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is a well established writer and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2011. Carr wrote this article because he found himself having a hard time focusing on any type of deep reading, something that he feels is very important to having a well rounded mind. He emphasizes that because the internet is structured to be a massive amount of information read one small piece at a time, our minds are starting to reflect that. He is writing for an intellectual audience who are probably for the most part highly educated. His audience would be those who can see the importance of the way that we consume information, and how our brains use that information. His writing in this article does a very good job of reaching that audience thanks to his obvious knowledge on the subject, and how he relates to his

He explains how when reading on the Internet, we go from page to page affecting our concentration. Carr believes that the Internet has caused a lack of concentration in people’s ability to read long articles. Carr gives many examples of the studies that had been done on the enduring effects of the Internet on concentration and contemplation. People’s minds expect to process high speed data like the way the Internet hands out it, so the Internet is doing the work of their minds. Carr admits that the Internet had covered the other intellectual technologies that people use. As a result; it is becoming more important and valuable. Moreover, Carr discusses the role of Google in Internet usage, and its work on building an artificial intelligence which has the potential to display human agency in a variety of industries because of its ability to complete tasks in a much shorter time. Ultimately, Carr concludes that people should not rely on computers because it will demolish their own intelligence with relying so much on the artificial

In the end, while Lyon and Hafner give us an entertaining story regarding how the Internet was discovered, we are still left wondering about what effect the Internet is actually having. True, we see all of the hard work that occurred behind the scenes in the making of the Internet in this book, but now the question must be asked: where does the Internet take us? This is a very important question in the context of where technology takes our culture, and takes humanity in general. Indeed, every piece of technology has an effect on the people within the culture. There is, after all, certain political and social consequences to the progress in technology. In his essay "Do

The words, “Arguing that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say” were said by Edward Snowden who is a computer professional in America. Similarly, the essays “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” “Web Users Get as Much as They Give,” and “Facebook Is Using You” from Nicholas Carr, Jim Harper, and Lori Andrews respectively points out that the internet privacy is good and bad. However, the articles by Carr and Andrews are based on the negative side of the internet privacy, which means that the internet privacy is not good. On the other hand, Harper’s article is based on the positive side of the internet privacy, which means that the internet privacy is good and scary, but people need to be careful of their own information and browsing histories, and websites. Jim Harper’s essay is more relevant and reasonable than the Nicholas Carr and Lori Andrews’s essays. However, Harper seems more persuasive to readers because he believes that the internet is good if people use it in a right way, whereas Carr and Andrews believe that the internet is not good at all.

The accessibilty of data on the web is anything but difficult to any internet user, as anybody can go onto any web program and hunt down whatever they are searching for, however as this happens it will bring about more issues and/or positives with memory or knowledge. While hunting down data this can expand the knowledge of the specific thing that they are searching for, or certainties that are useful towards the user, with this they can research about their reports, essays and even individuals. With the measure of data individuals put into the web, the more less demanding it is to discover data on users, for instance, if "Richelle" needed to search for a companions birthday, she can seek on google, "Veronica Latu" and a list of sites will show up and undoubtedly will be useful to Richelle to discover Veronica 's birthday on one or numerous destinations. Access to data is essential for education and enhancing lives. Not having access to the web is like not having fundamental tutoring; it extensively