Nicholas Carr's In the Shallows

Carr mentions the effect that technology has on the neurological processes of the brain by explaining the concept of plasticity. Plasticity is described as the brain’s response through neurological pathways through experiences. The brain regions “change with experience, circumstance, and need” (29). Carr explains that brain plasticity also responds to experiences that cause damage to the nervous system. Carr describes the process in which injuries sustained in accidents “reveal how extensively the brain can reorganize itself” (29).I have heard stories in which amputees are said to have a reaction to their amputated limb; it is known as a phantom limb. These types of studies are helpful in supporting the claim that the brain can be restructured. Carr asserts that the internet is restructuring our brains while citing the brain plasticity experiments and studies done by other scientists. I have

Nicholas Carr, the author of The Shallows, wrote his book to convince further society that the internet is having an adverse effect on their brains and how they are receiving information. His major thesis for the novel was expressed when he exclaimed, "...the Internet controls what we think and the process in which we think because with its efficiency and speed, we are formulating all of our thoughts through the speed of the internet rather than through the speed of our mind." Throughout the novel, Carr discusses multiple reasons on how we have changed to depend on the internet. As well as how we have let go of older versions of technology and methods of learning because they seem insufficient compared to the internet. Carr was very biased

The Internet is something that some consider their lifesavers, while others believe that it takes their life away. The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr is a novel that explores the different areas of how new technologies affect humans in different ways, regarding multi-tasking and distractions, to how new technologies make us lose a little part of ourselves. Throughout the book Carr puts forward very strong arguments, but then loses creditability with his use of fallacies in argument.

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 “Is Google Making us stupid”, Carr explains how the brain is malleable and how the internet might be shaping it by literally rewiring the brains network. Carr gives a brief example of how neurons can be made and broke depending on what things shape the way things are done. By being used to instant searching and internet preferences, the brain reprograms itself in being used that certain way. He thinks by using the internet so much, we will become more and more objective and quick thinkers, and ultimately emotionless computers. He also gives examples of how the clock and typewriter changed our way of thinking in the past. Adapting this way will rewire thought processes and continue to dictate how we act. Carr’s theory may be more obvious as we continue to be reliant on technology. (Carr)

In this essay Carr’s appeal to logos is the strongest, because he shows the effect of internet to our brain. Carr explained how Michael Merzenich a scientist believe that our brain massively remodeled by the use of internet. In the 1970s and 1980s Michael conduct a famous series of experiment on our brains and how the neural in our brain response to this experiment. He was

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.

“We are always in a perpetual state of being created and creating ourselves (Siegel, 221)”. The brain is a product of its ever-changing environment. As certain linkages between its regions are used more or less frequently, their relative strength fluctuates. Many times, cultural shifts, such as the current transition from a print culture to a digital culture, cause the largest effect on the connections within the brain. Because of the overabundance and simplicity of information on the internet, the brain is becoming more impatient and losing its ability to focus and interact at a deep level. As a result, humans must rely increasingly on the internet.

Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, questions the impact the technology has upon our lives. He argues that the internet prevents our ability to engage in deep reading and thus restricts our ability to think critically. He says this is due to the idea of neuroplasticity, which is where our brains change in order to adapt to the different stimuli it encounters. When books were first introduced, our brain had to rewire itself in order to achieve the ability to focus for long periods of time on text and to think deeply about it. This resulted in a literate deep thinker. However, the internet has forced our brain to rewire itself again. Carr says that “there is evidence that the cells of our brains literally develop and grow bigger with use, and atrophy or waste away with disuse” (22). Our brain has many structures that perform specific functions and the structures associated with deep thinking can decrease and eventually will serve no function if we don’t use it. We are much better thsn our ancestors. According to Carr, “the oral world of our distant ancestors may well have had emotional and intuitive depths we can no longer appreciate” (56). In other words, Carr believes that people in the past engaged in focused, immersed thinking. I believe that Nicholas Carr is right when he says that the internet is changing the way we think, however I don’t believe that we need to turn off the internet in order to reduce the chances of losing

In the paper, “Is Good Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr, American author and blogger, argues that new technologies are shaping the way we think and suggest that we should not rely so much on technology. Carr begins his paper with a reference to A Space Odyssey, a 2001 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. He uses this reference to introduce the ideas that something is “tinkering” with the human brain. Many people today, including himself struggle with reading long articles. He insist that its the internet's fault. In today's time, we depend on the internet to get all out information. Nicholas Carr says “My mind now expects to take in information they way Net distributes it….”. Many people today struggle that not only the way they read is changing but also the way they think is changing as well.

In his Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr contends that the overload of information is “chipping away his capacity for concentration and contemplation”(315). He admits with easy accessibility of information online, the process of research has became much simpler(Carr 315). Yet such benefit comes with a cost. Our brains are “rewired” as the cost of such convenience(Carr 316). As the result, “we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s...but it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking”(Carr 317). Carr argues the forming of such habits can prevent us from deep reading and thinking. In fact, he provides may evidences in the

According to a media theorist, Marshall McLuhan pointed out that the “internet supplies with the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” (Carr). This information given from the internet is useful for our everyday lives but it also comes with a cost of changing the way we think. Carr also states from personal experience that he used to concentrate on reading a book with ease, but once he spent a lot of time on the Internet it changed the way he read. He went from understanding the “narrative or the turns or argument” to losing his concentration around the second or third page all because of the time he spent surfing the internet or just replying to emails. Carr asked the question “is Google making us stupid?” and from what is shown we can say that it might actually. In sum, it has been shown that the media is shaping the process of thought and thus making us lose our concentration and the act of thinking of something

Nicholas Carr published The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains in 2011 as a result of his own personal experiences and observations of his own behavior. The book was published by W.W. Norton & Company with ISBN 978-0-393-33975-8. Carr began working on the book after he noticed that since the birth of the internet, he did not think in the same ways that he used to think; he was easily distracted and had trouble concentrating on tasks requiring a lot of thought (2011). This effect, he noticed, was not unique to him. Many of his colleagues reported that they too had lost a lot of interest in reading books, had trouble concentrating and were easily distracted (Carr, 2011). What if, Carr wondered, everyone doesn’t just prefer to do their reading on the internet for its inherent convenience and speed but rather, what if the internet was actually changing the way we all think?

Some people do not agree with Carr’s view that the Internet is making people stupid, and instead believe that we have never been smarter. Donald Morrison, a contemporary author and former editor of TIME Magazine, gives his response to Carr’s book The Shallows, “Just as we survived the advent of the telephone, radio, and television—which experts back then warned would fry our

Does the internet lessen our ability to think for ourselves? Not just the ability to think for ourselves, but the capacity for deep, contemplative thought. Nicholas Carr’s article Is Google Making Us Stupid?, which was first published in The Atlantic on July 1, 2008, asked us to consider this controversial question. Ease of access to information can provide enormous advantages, that can’t be denied. While Mr. Carr does admit that there are numerous benefits that technology brings us, he argues that the cost may be more than we had previously considered. Among the authorities that he references, he pits the views of Wired writer Clive Thompson against famous media theorist Professor Marshall McLuhan. Mr. Thompson states that the Internet “can be an enormous boon to thinking.” On the other hand, Mr. McLuhan questions the extent to which the media impacts the thought process. As far back as the 1960’s, he theorized that various forms of media are not merely passive tools used to obtain information, but that the media is, in reality, shaping the thought process. What Mr. Carr is asking us to consider is that the internet leading us away from independent thought, as opposed to steering us towards enlightenment. Initial research into this does appear to give credence to his theory, and I suspect that he is onto something.