As time goes by, many people around the world are relying on technology to fulfill their daily lives. Many people use technology for work, school, and communication. Technology keeps getting more advanced year after year. Some technological advances are Apple coming up with the new iPhone or the government creating a new droid that could save many lives in the United States military. Technology has helped the entire world stay connected and has changed the lives of people dramatically. Nicholas Carr has created several articles mentioning how technology is changing our minds. The persuasiveness of Nicholas Carr in “Is Good Making us Stupid?’’, can be determined by understanding his pathos, his ethos, and his logos. Ethos is the author’s credibility used to persuade the audience. Nicholas Carr has experience writing about issues that involve technology and culture. For example, his books include Does IT Matter? , The Big Switch: Rewiring the World. From Edison to Google, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brains, …show more content…
and The Glass Cage: Automation and Us (Carr 313). Carr has written several books about technology and the internet which makes him an expert. In addition, Carr has written for well-known journalism publications such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired (Carr, 313.) Working for these firms proves that Carr is a specialist in writing so that the audience rely on his information. Pathos is emotion used by the author to convince the audience.
In the beginning of the article, Nicholas Carr talks about how his mind started to alter due to technology. Carr feels that these changes are possible, making him go instane. Some of these changes are not being able to read a full article to skimming. According to Carr, “now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. 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 314). Ever since Carr has started using technology his mind seems to work in a different way than it used to be. Before, Carr would spend long period of time reading books and articles, now he searches everything on Google and finds the information he needs. Carr wants others to feel sympathy for him because he feels that technology is controlling his way of thinking and to get others to agree with
him. Logos is the facts that is used to persuade the audience. This mode of persuasion is used by support his claims. In the beginning, Carr mentions one of his colleagues named Bruce Friedman who blogs about the use of computers in medicine. Friedman believes the internet has changed his mental habits. According to Friedman, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print” (qtd. In Carr 316). Based on Friedman’s experience, Carr is trying to prove that the internet is making people lose the ability to read a full article and we are skimming through it. Friedman continues by saying that he skims through his blogs rather than reading three or four paragraphs. The internet has taught people to look for information in a quick and simple manner. Although people are not willing to take their time to read an entire full article, different ways of finding information have been created to make the process of reading easier. In this case, many students in school are taking advantage of this opportunity to search information for school projects. In addition, Carr uses logos by mentioning historical people that have been affected by technology. A historical person that is mentioned by Carr is Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzcshe’s vision was failing, which prevented him from focusing on a page. Carr believes that technology can affect a person mind. For Nietzsche, his writing started to change when he started using the typewriter. For instance, “changed from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style” (Carr 319). A person’s writing style can change when using technology. Although this saved Nietzshe from not be able to write again, the typewriter changed his writing style. On the other hand, if it weren’t for technology, many people wouldn’t be able to do their work and communicate. Nicholas Carr did a good job on using a lot of information to support his main points in the article. On the other hand, Carr should have talked about how technology has helped us as an entire society. Carr mostly focused on himself and how technology has affected him and not other individuals. Carr doesn’t take under consideration how technology has helped this world for a better cause. Technology has helped countries around the world communicate with one other. The United States has benefited from technology in many ways, and is known to be one of America’s biggest innovations. For instance, technology has helped the United States to detect when there is a possibility of a terrorist attack based on how terrorists operate online. Technology has also helped terrorists plan attacks. Engineers and scientists are working together with the U.S. military to create droids that could save many lives of soldiers. Although others believe that people are relying more on technology and it is making them “flat-minded,” they should think how technology has improved our society during the past decades.
In today’s society technology is everywhere, whether it be in a car, on a billboard, a laptop, or even on one’s phone. However, is all this technology a bad thing or is it truly a worldwide phenomenon. Even back during 1992, author Neil Postman wrote about how technology is both a blessing and a burden. Many people believe Postman’s views are arrogant or far-fetched, but there are also those who agree with him about the dangers of technology.
People all around agree that technology is changing how we think, but is it changing us for the better? Clive Thompson definitely thinks so and this book is his collection of why that is. As an avid fiction reader I wasn’t sure this book would captivate me, but the 352 pages seemingly flew past me. The book is a whirlwind of interesting ideas, captivating people, and fascinating thoughts on how technology is changing how we work and think.
Ethos is the act of proving one’s self (namely the author), reliable to the reader, and a credible writer to research and explain the topic
Author Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google making us Stupid,” discusses how the use of the computer affects our thought process. Carr starts out talking about his own experience as a writer and how he felt like “something had been tinkering with his brain, remapping his neural circuitry and reprogramming his memory”(313). Basically, he is acknowledging that since he started using the Internet his research techniques have changed. Carr believes that before he would immerse himself in books, lengthy articles and long stretches of prose allowing his mind to get caught up in the narrative or the
His mind starts to drift away from the texts and he’s not really understanding the material that is right in front of him. He believes that if you don’t exercise your memory, then you can become more forgetful. Carr also believes this to be true because we are using the internet to look up answers for ourselves and not doing the research to find it ourselves. We’re not relying on our memory to remember what we read, we’re just looking for the answers.
Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and Sherry Turkle’s “How Computers Change the Way We Think” both discuss the influence of technology to their own understanding and perspective. The first work by Nicholas Carr is about the impact technology has on his mind. He is skeptical about the effect it could cause in the long term of it. He gives credible facts and studies done to prove his point. While Sherry Turkle’s work gives a broad idea of the impact of technology has caused through the years. She talks about the advances in technology and how it is changing how people communicate, learn and think. In both works “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and “How Computers Change the Way We Think” the authors present
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
From communicating with one another to researching for an essay, these high-tech gadgets are constantly being used. Unfortunately this is slowly becoming a danger to the human mind and an individual's ability to carry out simple tasks. This can be shown through the examples in Carr’s novel. He states multiple times that technology is damaging the brain and is struggling to do the simple tasks it should be able to do. Through his multiple examples, it is clear that technology is hurting us because we can no longer contemplate, concentrate, remember certain details, and more. Although, we cannot avoid using technology, we should be mindful of how often we use
...echniques employed are persuasive and subtle, and this allows Carr to take advantage of all emotional arguments at his disposal. In conjunction with sources pertinent to the topic, Carr’s emotional appeals seem to get his audience thinking, and from the article it is easy to agree with the points he has made. Carr’s use of logos and pathos does bring into question his ethos, however. Fortunately, Carr’s ethos should not be questioned, as he has written several books and articles on the topic. This does not excuse his bias, but it does permit him to speak on the topic at hand. Carr definitely presents himself as a strong literary figure, and his views on the internet are reasonable as well as relatable. This combination of ethos, pathos, and logos successfully allows Carr to write as an expert in this field, and his article and thoughts are not to be taken lightly.
Humans are becoming more technologically-efficient every day. New inventions and innovations are constantly being made. The Internet is becoming more “reliable” every day. However, how much do we really get from the constant advancement of Internet use and smarter technology? Should we look at their contributions to the world as a benefactor or a curse? The common effect of “artificial intelligence” in the technology we use every day is examined by two brilliant authors, Nicholas Carr and Jamias Cascio. In Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, he explains the effects of the Internet and technology in our society and claims that the overuse of technology is dangerous and can affect how our mind operates. Jamias Cascio, on the other hand, uses his article “Get Smarter” to show the positive effects of technology in our constantly adaptive society claims that technology may just be making our society smarter and more efficient. While Carr and Cascio both use the claim of cause in their articles to provide valid points on how technology affects our society, Carr’s article proves to be more effective because it focuses on skeptical-based evidence and uses a variety of appeals and proofs.
Technology is one of the most important things in everyone’s life. Technology improves every day. in regards to today’s youth, they were born with all the new technological inventions as opposed to our parents. In “Quality Time, Redefined” by Alex Williams, published in the New York Times, the author talks about the positive and negative effects on technology. I enjoyed this reading because it related my personal day to day life. Even though some Americans acknowledge that technology is a part of their everyday life, they do not see the negative outcome of technology, they are blinded only by the positive aspects.
The opinions of many people vary on technology and the effects it has on today’s society. Some say that it’s more beneficial than anything, others completely disagree, and some have mixed emotions. Would you rather read out of a book, or play online learning games with a possible risk of eye problems? It’s about taking matters into your own hands. 71% of people believe technology has improved their lives. 76% of people completely disagree by saying that technology creates a lazy society and that is distracting and corrupting. Daily life with technology is also another huge issue in society. According to a survey taken in January 2013, people feel their work productivity has dropped 8% in the last year. They also felt that their relationships with their family at home dropped 4% in the past year. The opinions vary, but they are needed to show how technology is affecting different people.
Today the world revolves around different kinds of technology that are used for many things, some are necessary and some are not. Technology is a big part of our lives, and many would say we couldn’t live without it. Weather people like it or not technology is here, and it’s not going away. But a big question is; Is technology good or bad? Advancements in technology are bad For many reasons. Some are anyone who has a laptop can find someones personal information, people don’t get as much face to face interaction because they are always talking on the internet, and kids aren’t using proper grammar online, so they are losing their writing skills.
Technological innovations have been a key factor in the efficiency and progress of society throughout the ages. They have helped to make the daily and mundane chores manageable and sometimes even enjoyable but they have also taken away our ability to perform without them. Through the extensive use of technology the human brain has become idle and unable to do even the simplest of tasks without more effort than the task would require. Though technology has made communication over long distances easier it has also taken away the emotion and intimacy of communicating in person. Technology can also be used to deceive and has proven to be detrimental to relationships, people's social life, and learning capabilities in some instances. Even though technological innovations have many flaws no one can deny the help it provides, the lives it can save, and the power it holds over all of us. Despite all these good and beneficial properties technology can also be dangerous to our mental, emotional, and physical well being. Although technological innovations have been a key factor in the efficiency and progress of experiences and relationships, they have also crippled it.
Technology has changed modern society drastically, both positively and negatively. Technology has influenced every aspect of our life, making it simpler but not necessarily better. Albert Einstein was concerned about the advancement of technology. "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction."1 Undoubtedly, what has changed the most are communication, the spread of information, and how business is practiced. Consequently, practically everyone knows how to use a computer, connect to the Internet, or use a smartphone. This is demonstrated by the way the Internet is used daily by millions of people to communicate, to sell, advertise, retrieve, and share information. Thanks to the Internet, information from anywhere in the world is at our fingertips. As a result, the advancement of technology has changed our life in many ways including; sharing of information, communication, business, education, social interaction, simplifying everyday tasks, replacing basic skills and jobs.