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Nicholas Carrs article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” makes points that I agree with, although I find his sources to be questionable. The article discusses the effects that the Internet may be having on our ability to focus, the difference in knowledge that we now have, and our reliance on the Internet. The points that are made throughout Carrs article are very thought provoking but his sources make them seem invaluable. Carr discusses the effects that the Internet has on our minds and the way we think, as well as the way media has changed. Our minds no longer focus. When in conversation with people we are constantly distracted by the technological advances our era has brought. Text messages, emails, pop culture drama has all taken over thoughts. Our minds have changed from being able to focus and read a lengthy paper, to distracted and skimming for the little highlights to give us information. Media used to be lengthy pages full of information. Now it has turned into short snippets of the bold points in the articles, “Television programs add text crawls and pop-up ads, and magazines and newspapers shorten their articles, introduce capsule summaries, and crowd their pages with easy-to-browse info-snippets” (Carr 5). Media has played on our short attention span and constantly wondering mind by adding bright colors and bold prints to the many stories all around us. The days of one-page articles are over. Now one page turns into five to ten links, three sub-links, and twenty other sidebars. Although Carr’s sources may be highly praised in their field or study, they are not experts in the effects the Internet has on our minds. Bloggers are often very opinionated and do not pose as reliable sources for information. The fact tha... ... middle of paper ... ... to the point where we can no longer hold true to natural human characteristics, we are surely dooming ourselves. Although the Internet is very helpful and has created many technological advances, we as humans are not created to function like a computer. Our minds require deep thought, human interaction, and thorough knowledge of things so we can remember and fully understand concepts. The Internet in itself is a very helpful tool. The advances that have fallowed are truly amazing, along with vast array of information available. Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is very flawed and does not provided adequate resources to back up his claims. That being said, Carr points out things that might otherwise have been looked over and accepted as normal. His question is sincere, thought provoking, and one we all should be asking ourselves before its too late.
In my opinion, Google does not make us stupid like Carr suggests in his article. Google may make us seem lazy because we do less reading and physical activity. Information found on websites helps people become smarter and able to learn subjects easier in school. In the end, Carr never really provides scientific evidence that shows the brain’s circuitry having actually changed. I generally agree with Gladstone’s views and think the mirror metaphor is a useful way of talking about the media’s role in a free society. I also think that the computer and the Internet have enhanced our abilities and increased our processing speeds for acquiring knowledge: making the human brain more efficient in multitasking. The young people who are growing up with this new technology will expand it’s future. Gladstone makes the case that media distributors, even ones that seem indestructible, are ultimately subject to the preferences of their audience: us. Citizens should take up the responsibility of learning about and interacting with valuable media sources and reject those that pander to the lowest common
While his best arguments come from cultural criticism. Written text led to the decline of oral reading and television obliterated the radio. Every technology comes with it’s trade-offs, it just comes down to moderation. There is little doubt that the internet is changing our brain. What Carr neglects to mention, however, is how the internet can change our brain for the better. Computer games have the ability to improve cognitive tasks and increase visual attention. He doesn’t always address the good effects that the internet has had on the world. One of the better strategies Carr uses is switching his point of view from third to first person. He reflects on his personal life and how his life has changed in response to what he has learned. Carr shows how even he has his faults but, being aware of a problem is the first step to finding
In composing “Is Google Making Us More Stupid” Nicholas Carr wants his audience to be feared by the internet while at the same time he wants his work to seem more creditable. Nicholas Carr uses many different types of evidence to show us that we should be scared and feared as well as his credibility. Carr’s audience is people who think like him, who find themselves getting lost on the internet while reading something, someone who is educated and uses the internet to look up the answers to questions or to read an article or book.
Nicholas Carr, a periodic writer on issues such as technology and culture, wrote the article called “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (743) In this, he discusses the way that not only Google, but also the advancement in technology, especially computers and computer engines is slowly altering our brain, along with the way we take in information. The process started back in the 1970’s and 1980’s when technology got a jump in society. For example “television was our medium of choice” says Carr (747). From then on it has been a slow decline for the way we process information. Throughout this essay Carr backs up the reasons why he feels the way by using different types of figurative language, deductive reasoning, plus the use of logical fallacies that can strengthen or may even weaken his argument.
Trying to reflect the fears instilled in himself through comparison to an unrealistic movie. I believe that the internet hasn’t changed everyone’s the way the he says its changed his. I think that people who were born into the world of technology have the ability to analyze into a deeper thought what is needed and skim for instant answer when it’s not needed. On the other side those whom have been forced to adapt to it, such as Carr, find themselves losing abilities they once relied on because they were taught growing up to do both things. Now that the internet has forced them to adapt to it, they can’t focus of doing both types of thinking. The complexity of our minds is deep and that can’t be made shallow by the ability to get instant gratification of information. We simply begin to rule out unimportant things, once the important thing is found then it can be analyzed. Although Carr says his mind isn’t going as far as it used to, clearly that’s exactly what he did in this essay. He used the older “traditional way” of over-analyzing unnecessary things to reach a point that ends up being moot. Clearly, his use of logos, ethos and pathos, although present were not enough to prove his opinion to be
In Nicholas Carr 's article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he discusses the effect that technology has on our brains as the world becomes more advanced. He gives examples of how technology has helped us and hurts us. Nicholas Carr tells about his own experiences with technology and others as well. In this paper, I will talk about the first part of Carr’s article, I will then agree with Nicholas Carr, give examples from his article, talk on his structure, sources, counterarguments or solutions, and end with why I agree with what he has said.
Carr explains how the internet can distract us making it harder to focus on tasks. He explains how processing information has become harder. Notifications, ads, popups can make it difficult if you are trying to read an article or book (Carr 57). The internet has become the center of our attention (Carr 57). Carr is explaining how this is the reason why we are struggling to comprehend a certain piece of information. He adds in his article that scientists, researchers and educators have also noticed the difference in concentration. And in further detail, he explains that we fail to see the important information, thus affecting cognition. He says that the information we gather is not valuable unless we know the meaning behind it. Carr concludes with explaining that the more the internet evolves the less valuable information is to
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." July/August 2008. The Alantic Magazine. 20 February 2012 .
Atlantic journalist Nicholas Carr confesses that he feels something has been “tinkering with his brain.” The internet, he fears, may be messing with our minds. We have lost the ability to focus on a simple task, and memory retention is steadily declining. He is worried about the effect the internet has on the human brain, and where it may take us in the future. In response to this article, Jamais Cascio, also a journalist for the Atlantic, provides his stance on the issue. He argues that this different way of thinking is an adaptation derived from our environment. Ultimately, he thinks that this staccato way of thinking is simply a natural evolution, one that will help to advance the human race.
These two articles are similar in the sense that they agree that the internet and computational objects are reshaping our brain’s structure by changing our neural circuit. By using examples from their personal experiences to identify a trend in technology use, the authors illustrate that the more we bury ourselves in technology the more we are unable to understand material which leads to loss of concentration and the ability to think for ourselves. As an author, Carr finds the internet a beneficial tool, but it’s having a bad effect on his concentration span. Carr points this out by stating “Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy, now I get fidgety, lose the thread and begin looking for something else to do” (39). He is no
Andrea Schlesinger’s, “In Google We Trust” a chapter in her book The Death of Why? The issue is that the internet has changed people and that it may not be a good thing. Google has changed the way that people think greatly, especially in our ability to analyze, understand and know the source of the information we receive from google.
In this fast-paced and hectic life, people have developed a desire for "Instant gratification" which essentially means that people get what they want, and they get it in an instant. Google has proven to be one of our greatest tools in accomplishing this. In Nicholas Carr's essay, "Is Google Making Us Stupid", he explains the convenience of this search engine, "Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I've got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after" (Carr 46). Research is a way for people to learn how to learn, but Google is making learning too easy. There is no challenge in trying to find and learn information. Anything you need to know is literally one click away. But is Google making us stupid, or is it making us lazy? "The more pieces of information we can 'access' and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers" (Carr 51). Everything comes fast and easy, and people seem to think this will expand the knowledge we can obtain. We now expect information to find us. We think we can type in whatever need into the Google search bar and we will be provided with links to the knowledge de desire. Google is making us lazy and this has major repercussions. Just as I was too lazy to go to the store to make my purchase or even pay with actual cash. I could not be bothered. Paying online with a card and then having the item delivered is just too convenient, but this convenience caused a breach in my own privacy, and a loss of my own
Nicholas Carr wrote a magazine article titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” where he goes into depth about how the internet has changed the way we think and process information. He says that before the internet it was easier to concentrate and immerse himself in reading, but with the internet his mind has adjusted the way it receives it’s information, “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” This change in mindset has caused Carr to feel as though he can no longer concentrate on lengthy books or articles because he is used to have quick and easy information. Andrea Lunsford doesn’t seem to feel the same way. Lunsford is a professor of writing at Stanford University, in 2006 she conducted a study where she took 14,672 samples of various kinds of student writing and found that students are writing far more than ever before. According to her team, all that writing has created a kind of paradigm shift that hasn’t been seen since the Greeks invented argumentative writing. Before the internet people typically stopped writing after they graduated school but because of media and socializing via text people are continuing to write throughout their whole lives. This means that the internet is not making us stupid but in fact helping us achieve a level of higher
Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” poses the theory that the invention of the Internet is changing the nature of thinking and learning. In an age where answers to almost any question are only a few button clicks away, it seems we are living in an enlightened time. The internet has offered us so much, from scientific collaboration to crowd funding and to my personal favorite, more cute cat videos than I could watch in my lifetime. The internet has impacted humanity, raising the bar for research and leaps forward in technology. Carr seems to disagree, arguing that the internet and Google can be blamed for making us “stupid.” Google and the Internet are changing the
Nicholas Carr (a renowned author who has written extensively on this subject), reported in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” cases of very intelligent, well educated people who have begun to notice a change in the way they think and study. These people are experiencing an increasing difficulty in remaining focused for long periods of time or while reading a work longer than a few pages. It’s as if mankind is being programmed to click on any link of button it is presented with and, more importantly, to look for them, even when they aren’t there. Human brains seem to be transitioning away from the careful, deeply focused mentality of an archer’s brain to the lively, constantly moving focus of a juggler’s brain.