September 8, 2014
Essay 1: “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” summary and response
Summary:
In the article of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet is changing the way our mind works and has some negative effects on our lives. In the article of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet is changing the way our mind works and has some negative effects on our lives. The article begins with that the Internet is the excellent resource where we can find whatever we want for everything, and we are becoming more and more dependent on it in the field of writing, reading and so on. Afterwards, Carr claims that it has a large distraction on our mind, and we even cannot concentrate on a long reading material. As he said, technology is becoming more important than people. In the end, he also tells us that Google is trying to invent an artificial brain to replace our "slow" brains that we already have.
In the article of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet is changing the way our mind works and has some negative effects on our lives. He views the idea that the Internet is an obstacle for individuals to think deeply, and it is rebuilding our mind and memory. As Carr said, nowadays, it is so difficult for him to focus on a long paper; instead, he always spends a lot of time on the Internet. In the past, the writers like him should stay in the library to study for several days, but now, because of the Internet, it just takes them a couple of minutes. As Marshall McLuhan, a media theorist argued that although media provided us with a huge number of information and thoughts, it also rebuilt our process of thought. A study of online research habits, done by scholars from University College London, shows that our ways of reading and thinking have a large change. From the study, it is obvious that users are using a new way to read instead of traditional sense: they often do a quick
Cited: Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2014. 91-101. Print.