How many times within the past week have you heard the phrase, “just Google it”? It is that twenty first century lingo that has affected the thought process of humans more than we think. While technology has developed over the past years, mankind has become overly reliant on the internet which has hindered human’s ability to solve problems and develop strong social skills. It has become a habit for Americans to rely on the internet for any information they may need. The ability to find answers immediately is changing the thought process of the brain, and hindering long term memory. Rather than retaining and storing information in the brain, people tend to simply “Google it” because they have the worlds knowledge at their fingertips. When we look up information online instead of figuring the problem out ourselves, it causes us to think more shallow minded. A recent survey was examined that explored how most people can not recall even the simplest pieces of information, such as a phone number. (Rodriquez) It was shown that over 35% of people do not know their spouses phone number by heart, and over 50% cannot recall their own employers number. It became clear that “our reliance on technology is damaging our ability to remember boilerplate information from our daily lives.” (Rodriquez) After googling a question, the information discovered will most likely not be retained in the brain, but will only be recalled in short term memory. Every time a person looks up the answer
Are you at an age where you can remember a time before the internet, where you would have to search through stacks of books or encyclopedias to find the information that you want? Some of you may be thinking “Yes, thank god for google!” and others may be thinking “Oh, the horror! I can’t imagine surviving without it!”. But there are the few that reminisce about the time when you couldn’t find whatever information you were looking for in a matter of minutes. Unlike many, Tim Kreider looks back on the times before the internet with fondness, and thinks that our easy access to information has had some negative side effects. While Kreider raises some interesting and valid points in his article, “In Praise of Not Knowing” there are still some
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
In 2011, Betsy Sparrow’s experiment tested college students on a number of different levels of retaining information. For the second experiment, participants were asked to read and type phrases into the computer and told to remember the phrases. Some were told their phrases would be retrievable, and others that their phrases would be not be saved. In regard to those that were told their phrases would be saved, she stated, “Participants apparently did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statements they had read.” (777). She points out that all participants were asked to remember the phrase, therefore that specific request had no bearing on the results. “Participants were more affected by the cue that information would or would not be available to them later, regardless of whether they thought they would be tested on it.” (777). Google, and other search engines, are slowly replacing the internal memory functions of encoding, storage, and retrieval when there is an option of letting a computer do the work.
The internet, in short, is our everyday savior when in distress. Technology is our main source of communication in the 21st century. However, according to Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, published in the July/August 2008 issue of the Atlantic, the internet is reprogramming his memory, and remapping his neural circuitry. Carr accuses the internet of taking away his focus and concentration.Even though Carr uses logos intensely and multiple rhetorical approaches in convincing the reader of his point of view, he fails to make a logical, persuading argument for multiple reasons.
The debate over the internet's influence on human minds has been long running. Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" article successfully defends both opinions on this issue. He has plenty of history on the topic and has seen much success in previous works. Carr uses his past to impact the present issue society is challenged with every day. With his background on the subject, Carr is able to establish credibility as a speaker before he reasons for both sides of the debate successfully.
The internet has revolutionized the world. The internet users can easily access from any data from around the world. However, the internet was also made the users less critical thinkers since the data obtain can be easily found online instead of reading it from a print book. Two sources in particular, Nicholas Carr, “Shallows” and Michael’s Aggers, interview with Clive Thompson “Smarter than you think” have recently argued how the internet has changed our memory and ways of thinking. The internet is bad for your brain because it limits your knowledge of memorization and XXXXXXX .In the book Shallows by Carr, he states. “The arrival of the limitless and easily searchable data banks of the Internet brought a further shift, not just in the way
The internet is a technology which has had a significant impact on the way many people conduct their lives. Information once contained in massive volumes at libraries or in private collections is now available by typing words into a search engine and clicking “search.” One must no longer pick up a phone to call a friend, relative or colleague; e-mail, instant messaging, Skype and the like, have enabled people to communicate in non-traditional ways and across boundaries previously inaccessible. Nicholas Carr addresses the wonder that is the internet in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The general direction of the article is a discussion of how intelligent thought patterns seem to be changing; attention spans and critical
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
The article published by The Atlantic, titled Is Google Making Us Stupid? causes the reader to contemplate the effect that the internet really has on us. Technology is used daily by the grand majority of people, and we jumped into this lifestyle without researching the effects it would have on us. Until recently people have not thought twice about this, but now we mutiple people, including scientists, questioning the effects on the brain. One of the hypothesized problems caused by the internet are the inability to retain information. The reasoning behind this thought is we try to be quick about our reading, we do not like being inefficient, what we do is we skim. The writer found this to be true for himself as well as a couple of his friends
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.
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
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
Nicolas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid” examines the way the internet’s instant information is shaping the way we process and retrieve information. Rather than gaining knowledge through many grueling hours of research at the library reading through every book that may or may not give you information, now a simple click on a website or link can produce information in seconds. With an instant gratification of retrieving information, over time, patience with reading long, drawn out research material is diminished. “I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do…. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” (Carr, 1)
Google being the main search engine on the web, many researchers believe that it has a double-sided effect on our ability to research. ‘Googling’ actually improves our ability and methods of retrieving information, but it may affect our ability to remember. According to a magazine called ‘Science’, Google is not decreasing the quantity of how much we can remember, but instead simply on how we remember.
How many times a day do you use Google to search a simple question? According to Internet Live Stats, there are over 3.5 billion searches on Google everyday. People use technology to answer easy questions and perform simple tasks every minute, when they could be finding out the answer from a book or even another person. I see my fellow classmates searching the answer to questions that they can’t find in their textbook everyday. Even I have been guilty of searching a question that I was unsure of on the internet; we have all had instances that we did this. However, this creates a mindset that we only need to learn the things that are useful in school. This deters students from really trying in the classroom setting and even later on in life.