Bruce Friedman's Argument

Carr brings up many significant points that support his argument throughout the article such as the examples of himself, Bruce Friedman, and the study of the University College London to show that the way we think had been forever changed by the internet because we no longer have the ability to focus or concentrate. The author makes a strong point when he states a point from theorist Marshall McLuhan “media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought” (227). Carr continues his thought with the self observation that “And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take information the way

Another example that helps Carr’s argument that shows that the internet has changed the way we think is the study conducted by scholars at the University College London where they looked at computer logs that showed the behaviors of those who visit two very popular research sites (228). These findings show that people “read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would ‘bounce’ out to another site” (228). All of these examples helped to prove Carr’s point in a very strong way by showing different accounts and examples of how people seem to no longer hold the ability to focus or concentrate thanks to the web changing the way we

Carr makes a strong point when he states James Old, a professor at George Mason University, with his statement “even the adult mind ‘is very plastic.’ Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. ‘The brain … has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions” (229-230). One example that helps prove Carr’s point in his argument is Frederick Winslow Taylor who was said to have completely changed his writing style thanks to the new technology of a typewriter. Daniel Bell discusses “intellectual technologies” as “tools that extend our mental rather than our physical capacities” where “we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies” (230). Taylor seemed to follow Bell’s theory as he began to take on new qualities or styles of writing thanks to his new technology of the typewriter. Another example Carr uses to prove his point is computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum who looked at the use of timekeeping instruments saying that the world “remains an impoverished version of the older one, for its rests on a rejection of those direct experiences that formed the basis for, and indeed constituted, the old reality” (230). Carr’s use of the concept of the human brain’s malleability with the examples of James Old’s “plastic mind”, Bell’s theory that we become like our technologies that