Preview

Nicholas Carr's 'Is Google Making USupid?'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
565 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nicholas Carr's 'Is Google Making USupid?'
In Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr argues that people are more interested in instant gratification when they take in information than they are in critically thinking about it. He states that people adapt very quickly to new technologies and incorporate aspects of said technologies into their perception of the world, so inventions such as the computer, which are developed for the purpose of fast rapid information transfer, influence the rate at which people evaluate information. It is more common to see people unable to concentrate on activities such as reading today than it was ten years ago. People are more used to scrolling through web pages and skimming articles than assessing the information they come across. Although this method of accessing information allows people to research more efficiently, people are also more likely to acquiesce to whatever mindset …show more content…
It is far easier to accept data on the internet superficially than it is to be skeptical of information. Carr asserts that this ideology that information collection should be based on efficiency rather than skepticism may be detrimental in the future as artificial intelligence (AI) software develops. The brain will be seen by the public as a computer, much like that of an AI, that should transmit information hastily, rather than seen as a being that should ponder and question sources. He inquires on the safety of such an ideology and encourages readers to analyze that which they read and research. People are capable of deep thought and analysis, so accepting information superficially is dangerous. “Who we are is how we live our time.” An idea asserted by Todd Gitlin, author of Supersaturation, or, The Media Torrent and Disposable Feeling. Gitlin elucidates with thorough evidence and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr. He talks about the influence the Internet has on people. How easy it is with the click of a button and you can get thousands of results. This is the power of Google. It’s having effects on the brain but not quite like you would want it to.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr, a Dartmouth and Harvard graduate, and member of encyclopedia Britannica’s editorial board of advisors, poses the argument that the constant use of sources such as Google can reshape the thought process in a negative way. Although, the Internet has brought many advantages to the user, these advantages could be detrimental to the brains thought process.…

    • 2227 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    information not allowing our brain to work hard enough. Carr claims, "the internet has altered his…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Google, with all of its information at the tip of our fingers actually making us dumber than we are? On July 1st 2008 an article was written by Nicholas Carr titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and this article was taken differently by many people. He talks about how he has problems reading ever since he discovered Google. Carr states “my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do” (2) and he blames Google is the problem. He believes the constant multi-tasking and skimming over articles on the internet has hindered the way we read. Steven Johnson however will somewhat disagree with the article and writes his own article title “Yes, People Still Read, But Now Its Social.” Mr.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Style is the one distinctive factor that separates an individual from the proverbial herd. The fascinating aspect of literature is how it differs based on the style of the individual. In the essay “Is Google making us Stupid” the persuasive style of Nicholas Carr’s writing allows us to see his unique perspective. The use of his textual evidence, emotion, and incorporation of literary devices distinguish his unique style and provide a legitimate convincing argument.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For over a decade now, the World has relied upon the global Internet as a tool and means of survival. From looking up your favorite recipe on Google to checking your beloved sports teams score on ESPN, the Internet has served as a lifesaver to our existence. However Nicholas Carr, author of the short essay “Is Google Making us Stupid?” states that while the Internet may be a “lifesaver” it also has its downfalls. Carr uses personal stories and tells of his extensive research in the area to make his readers believe in his credibility. This appeals to ethos, combined with his friendly tone, create an effective argument for why the Internet might actually be making humans stupid.…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the short story, Is Google Making Us Stupid, the author, Nicholas Carr suggests that the Internet affects how human beings process literary works. He begins to illustrate this point by using a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey where the man purposely disassembles HAL, the supercomputer, in order to disconnect its ability to think for itself. Carr personifies HAL, and describes how it could feel its brain being taken away as the man stripped it of its memory circuits. Carr compares the sensation that the supercomputer endures, when losing its mind, to how the Internet has rewired our human brains. It has made low-concentration levels a norm, and thus, has caused a change in our reading styles: we now immerse in a shallow…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr. Carr speaks on how over the last decade his focus and ability to concentrate has been declining due to the fact that he has a plethora of knowledge available to him on his smartphone or computer, thus he is not able to focus on a task at hand for as long as he could before the age of information. Carr claims that his mind is changing for the worse and backs his evidence with first hand accounts of respected scholars who also share the same fate as he does. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is an article that delves deep into the age of information and can explain why it is much easier for people to procrastinate today than it was a decade ago.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A graduate of Harvard University, Nicholas Carr’s essay, published in Altantic in 2008, expresses his opinion about the effects google has on our b rains. Carr’s writings about technology made appearances in the New York Times Magaz ine, Wired, the Financial Times and Diee Ziet. The intended audience for his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is general and it’s about if google is effecting our abilities and the way we think. Nicholas Carr uses narration, explanation and cause / effect modes to exp lain to readers about how using the internet has changed our abilities, inform us on the changes of our t hought process and the effects it has on our brain. Carr opens the article with a poignant scene from Stanl ey Kubrick’s A Space…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In his article: Is Google Making Us Stupid, the author Nicholas Carr describes how Internet searching influences he and his friends. He states that he became to lose “concentration” on books and long-articles. Therefore, he raises a view that we need to care about the Web information, although it makes human life more convenient. He wrote: “The Web [had] been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes” (Para.3). Obviously, the Internet searching technologies, for instance, Google, it really helps us save times. The Internet searching technology makes human life more convenient and make office works and school paper works more efficient.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In his essay “Is google making us stupid” Nicholas Carr explains how the internet has helped us to gather vast amounts of information very quick, but also how it has affected our attention span when the time comes to read long pieces of texts. Carr also feels that our brains are constantly getting rewired due to the amount of time we spend online has caused him to lose concentration when he is reading. Besides, make it easier to find information and rewiring our brains the internet has changed the way we comprehend what we are reading. Carr states that before the internet he could easily get caught in the argument of what he was reading and that he no longer does it because his concentration starts to drift away after reading a couple of pages.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nicholas Carr’s essay, ‘Is Google making us stupid?’ proposes the idea that the human mind is undergoing another big change. He ponders how the intake and response to information we collect and how we process that information is changing, which he leads to question how will it eventually lead to an impact on us as individuals. Irony however is not lost on the author as this work was published on the Internet and does not conform to what he knows people will look at or how they will read it.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine a world where people are all programmed to think a certain way, where every action is robotic,. wWhere they have no freedom of thought. T, this is the reality we face that is described in the book written by Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Google is restructuring the human mind for its own purposes, forof faster information extraction and retrieval. The fact that Google is doing this is wrong, because we should be able to do more than parse through data as quickly as possible.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Carr’s careful use of pathos simplify the audience’s sympathy for his drifting concentration, fidgety habits, and struggle while brightening up their persuasion with images like tripping over hyperlinks and jet skiing over a sea of words. Ethos is appealed to not only in the narrator’s self-consciousness, but the comparison in condition he has to related bloggers and personal scholastic contacts. A simple yes to the article title, finishes with a call for a more absolute picture of how the Internet use affects thought. For this, Carr relies on the logos of scientific research.…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    We are at a time where technology is widespread; it has become a part of our everyday life leading to advantages and disadvantages and technology currently has become the most important topic to discuss and everyone has developed their own unique opinion. In Nicholas Carr’s article published in 2008, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, he argues that as technology progresses people’s mentality changes. Carr is effective in his argument by sharing his fears and personal experiences to influence the audience utilizing pathos and ethos. Not only does he include his own experience, but he also includes other people’s point of views. He goes on to support his claim of how technology…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays