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Analysis Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

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A Deeper Understanding of Technology
Technology advances everyday around the world. From the nerd’s favorite Microsoft Windows to the geek’s beloved Apple, we have entered a new age of technology - Internet and computing. But technology is a double edged sword; it can provide the user an enormous amount of resources in merely a second, but it can also devour one’s valuable time in just a blink of an eye from ads, popups, social media etc. And for a long time, it has become important to ask exactly how does the advance of technology affect modern society? Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” argues that as we make the Internet our primary knowledge, it begins to devour our mental capability and diminish our learning experience. …show more content…

Every new tool shapes the way we think, but does this change make us more intelligent? Carr claimed that his reading comprehension decreases the more he accesses the Internet. He supports his claim by admitting “the deep reading that used to come naturally had become a struggle” (Carr 314). He states that not only him, but his friends also, have the same problem of not being able to concentrate reading a book or lengthy articles and will often “get fidgety, lose the thread, [and] begin looking for something else to do” (Carr 314). Carr feels the time he spends online is rewiring his brain, unable to “think the way [he] used to think” (Carr 313). He explained that because of the net increase in resources, along with distractions such as ads, popups, social media etc., our brain’s learning process tends to subside and “exhibit a form of skimming activity,” skipping from one source to another and rarely hopping back to any previous source and take a moment “to interpret [the] text, to make the rich mental connection that form when we read deeply and without distraction” (Carr 317). Thompson noticed …show more content…

Carr believes technology is slowly taking over human minds. He postulates that we “inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies” the more we rely on them. Carr echoes Lewis Mumford, author of “Technics and Civilization,” about how the invention of the clock “disassociated time from human events and helped create the belief in an independent world of mathematically measurable sequences” (Carr 320). However, he believes the invention of the clock helped to create men with scientific mind but also took away our sense of reason and judgment in “deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise,” and ultimately “we [stop] listening to our sense and [start] obeying the clock” (Carr 320). On the other hand, Thompson disagrees with Carr. He suggests humans have more controlling over machines. He supports his thought by referring to computers in chess that “the computer has no intuition at all, it analyzes the game using brute force [and] inspects the pieces currently on the board, then calculates all options” (Thompson 343). He points out that the way computer thinks is “fundamentally unhuman” and it is the player who runs the program and decides which moves to take (Thompson 343). After all, computers are just tools that we use to optimize accuracy and

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In Nicholas Carr’s writing, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” mentions multiple examples of why the internet and the simplicity of looking up and getting exactly what we were looking for are causing a drop in the way we think and the intelligence of our minds. Carr explains that he was once a huge reader and could comprehend ten to fifteen-page articles easily, but the directness of the internet had dulled his brain that he could not read a few paragraphs before he gave up and his mind started drifting off into the emptiness of his brain. Carr mentions that the Net is being the universal medium causing information that is read and learned go in one ear and out the other. Carr defends his positions by adding multiple examples showing that the Net

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Nicholas Carr is a writer who writes in these kind of field: technology, business, and culture. Carr wrote this essay called, “Is Google Making us Stupid”; Carr fully explains how internet changes people’s thinking, a way of reading, and knowledge with rhetoric strategies. For logos, Carr thoroughly supports his arguments with great supporting points from credit sources. He explains how the internet affects us in reading. For pathos, he points out that human’s brain would work differently since we are using the internet widely comparing to the generation, whom lives without the internet.

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Humans have had their mental habits altered due to the Internet. People prefer skimming over reading instead of reading more than three or four paragraphs. Carr says that this new form of reading is called “power browsing” (415). This is where people just scroll through titles, contents, and pages at quick speeds, which results in skimming over important information. With technology on the rise, human brains must adapt to this fast-paced web and accept that

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Nicholas Carr, a writer and literature major, took the time to write his opinion about the new technologies and how they are shaping us today. He did this in his work “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. Carr explores the changes technology has on the world and the way people think. He argues that “as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding

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There are tendencies in this society, to expect the worst from various forms of new technologies and how they can affect people long term. However, a counterargument states that the increasing amount of technologies people use can be beneficial in a variety of ways. Within the persuasive essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” written by Nicholas Carr, demonstrates both opinions and elaborates on each of the arguments specified. Within this essay, I will illustrate how technologies, such as Google are not posing significant harm to its’ consumers. Arguments made within the article that demonstrate “Google” and other various forms of social media as being harmful to people, state that the overindulgence and massive exposure to a large amount of

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Carr describes the way our brains have changed as a consequence of using media. He later reports that when new or improved technology enters our lives, we begin to take on the qualities of those technologies, because it changes our “intellectual technologies”. He also uses the analogy of a clock, presenting the idea that we eat, work, sleep, and rise based on what time of day it is, instead of listening to our own senses. Carr then uses the claim from a 1936 British mathematician named Alan Turing that computing systems are subsuming most of our other intellectual technologies such as our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and our television. Likewise, he explains how the internet assumes what we are thinking and injects its context with hyperlinks, blinking ads, headlines, and other propaganda.

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If deep reading is no longer performed, then our brains are rewired to not deep think. This clearly demonstrates that the use on the Net is in effect making us less intelligent. Reading a physical book requires patience and concentration. When browsing the Internet there is not much concentration or deep thinking required. These skills become dormant and cannot be reawakened.

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In his thought-provoking essay, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?", Nicholas Carr challenges readers to consider the potential impact of the internet and digital technologies on the human mind. Through his use of rhetorical strategies, including anecdotes, historical references, and expert testimony, Carr argues that the internet may be fundamentally changing the way we think and process information. One of Carr's most effective rhetorical devices is his use of personal anecdotes to illustrate the potential consequences of digital distraction. Carr describes how his own ability to concentrate on lengthy reading has been compromised by the constant interruptions and distractions of the internet.

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In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicholas Carr explores the impact of the internet, particularly search engines like Google, on our cognitive abilities and thought processes. He argues that our capacity to concentrate deeply and intently may be affected by the internet's easy access to information and constant barrage of distractions. He believed that we are growing accustomed to skimming brief pieces and hopping from one issue to another, rather than reading long texts and thinking through complicated concepts. He claims that reading deeply and critically is declining as a result of how simple it is to obtain a wealth of information online. Carr uses his own experiences and observations to illustrate how the internet has impacted his own reading habits as well as attention

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Carr could have not said it any better, “what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away at my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” It has immobilized my ability to think on my own and read in-depth. Once again, technology has wiggled its way back into my life. Since reading this article, I have caught myself becoming dependent on the Internet. If I ever have questions,I automatically take out one of my devices and look up the question.

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People searching for immediacy and skimming through texts might play a role in the lessening of attention spans but it seems to be more of a product of choice and self discipline, rather than a product of using the Internet. Carr’s argument about the Internet causing these effects on cognition seems to be an excuse for an individual’s own habits. Sometimes, I almost feel the need to be distracted and compelled to check my phone, email, Facebook etc. However, I found that to be my choice. Whenever I tell myself that I need to get work done before indulging in an Internet-savvy society or when I put my phone somewhere that is out of sight, my urge to use technology has diminished almost completely because of the self discipline I have enforced.

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I happen to agree with Carr’s assertion that the Internet is changing how we think, however, what I don’t agree with is that this change is for the worse. Carr discusses neuroplasticity and how Internet use is altering the way our brains process information (95). Carr appears to imply that this change would have negative impacts purely because the Internet is the catalyst; however “plasticity is generally seen as a positive feature” (Lehrer). Perhaps I am not grasping why “Carr is interested in its[neuroplasticity] dark side” (Lehrer) , maybe he fears that if the Internet vanished for some reason we would be unable to function; however, in this case the same thing would happen, i.e. our brain would re-adapt to a world without the

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With an abundant amount of internet usage, studies show the development of implications in our brain such as short-term attention spans and scattered thinking. When we work online, our brains are constantly pressured to take in vast amounts of information. Think about when you are reading an article on the internet and then all of the sudden that really interesting ad pops up, you just totally forgot about what you're reading. “We are becoming mere signal-processing units, quickly shepherding disjointed bits of information into and then out of short-term memory” Carr explains that the internet is considerably reducing our ability to concentrate which is developing scattered thinking. Continually being exposed to these things are negatively affecting the way we process and interpret the information we are obtaining through the

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Our way of thinking is beginning to change to the way that computers do. Advancements are made everyday. These new advancements are attempting to make life in general easier for everyone. Nicholas Carr makes the claim that, “as the internet because our primary source of the information it is affecting our ability to read books and other long narratives.” Carr suggests that using the internet is altering the way that our minds operate.

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Nowadays, the internet is the biggest marketing and media tool that people can use today. It can have various effects on people’s daily life ranging from bad to beneficial. In the essay “Is Google making us stupid” by Nicholas Carr writes about how internet usage in the 21st century is changing people’s reading habit and a cognitive concentration. Particularly, he emphasizes on Google’s role in this matter and its consequences on making people machine like. Carr also stated that the online reading largely contributes to people’s way of reading a book.

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