Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr

963 Words2 Pages

Nicholas Carr is an author that focuses on the real word changing. His main focuses are the changes in technology, business and the culture. One of his essay’s, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” focuses on whether or not the Internet is creating problems within today’s society, and with our learning abilities in general. Carr provides detailed examples from Google, research teams and our own history to show the impact it has on today’s life and the minds’ of Internet users. This essay is very convincing to how Google and the Internet in general are changing the framework of our minds. He states that, “My mind isn’t going- so far as I can tell- but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” (370) Carr continues to go on about how it’s harder for him to concentrate when reading, catching himself wondering only after a few pages. The web has become a “universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind.” Marshall McLuhan stated, “Media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” Throughout Carr’s essay you will read many different stories, and research projects stating that they notice a change within their minds. That there framework is changing for the worse. I can relate to Carr’s experience with reading. I once was able to read without any worries, continuing from page to page without anything stopping me. Now I have to concentrate harder, focusing and reading each page more carefully because my concentration and contemplation is becoming weaker. Carr cites many experts on how th... ... middle of paper ... ...deep thinking. If we lost those quiet spaces, or fill them up with content, we will sacrifice something important.” (376) I agree that the Internet, as well as advancements in technology is interfering with our concentration and the framework of our minds in a negative way. It may allow us to expand our knowledge and thoughts, but it does not allow us to grasp a deeper understanding on what we’re actually reading and learning. With knowing that we are just a click away from searching anything in the world, it plays a negative factor on our learning abilities. As Carr said, “we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.” (377) Works Cited Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Ed. Mid Michigan Community College. Boston: Peason, 2013.

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