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Essay On The Shallows By Nicholas Carr

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Over generations and generations the world has seen many changes that has impacted the world and the lives of people. Some of those changes include the printing press, computers, and the smartphone. Have you ever realized that the internet might be affecting your brain? Well Nicholas Carr thinks the internet is bad and has an impact on our brain. In the book The Shallows by Nicholas Carr he claims that over many generations new technology has been created and it has been affecting our brains. One of the topics Nicholas Carr brings up is the downfall of books. Back then, when there wasn't internet and all the technology we have today, people were able to focus and read a book cover to cover. Now that there’s internet in our lives it is harder for people to stay focused and have the patience to read the book cover to cover when they know that they have the internet to their disposal. I disagree with Nicholas Carr and think that internet is good because it is very helpful in our everyday lives. …show more content…

Nicholas Carr states,” The Net provides a high-speed system for delivering responses and rewards-”positive reinforcements,” in psychological terms-which encourage the repetition of both physical and mental actions”(Carr 117). This means that the internet is very useful when you need to look for something because you can get a lot of answers right away. For example, if you needed to find how to make a meal from scratch you can just search in up and there are a lot of different websites that you can read that will give you a lot of information. Nicholas Carr also states,’’ The Nets interactivity gives us powerful new tools for finding information, expressing ourselves, and conversing with others”(Carr 117). It lets us learn and find out things that we didn't know

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The debate is whether the physical and physiological changes are detrimental. In 2008 The Atlantic publishes an article by Nicholas Carr who discusses his take on the critical conversation presenting what the internet is doing to our brains in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. When analyzing Nicholas Carr’s stance on the argument, one would both agree and disagree with Carr. The

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Carr blames the change in our brain, while Keohane blames the psychological aspects of the mind. Carr states that information overload that the internet is providing, has a great impact on, "shaping the neural circuits inside our brains" (62). Different technologies throughout the years, for example, the production of the steam engine has impacted the brain. None of the inventions have quite changed the makeup of the brain quite like the internet (63). Keohane unlike Carr believes that information surplus is changing the intellectual part of our mind.

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He asserts the different ways and examples on how the internet has had effect in our brain and our way of thinking. First, in agreement with the author’s argument about the how the internet is fundamentally changing our lives in the way we think and process information. He is right because the internet has been the main source of information that most people use nowadays to make their work more easier and faster. People tend not to think straight anymore to do things right because of the internet which brings more easier information than for us to use our brain. According to carr, he gives the example of Friedrich Nietzsche’s typewriter to show that the prolonged use of such a new medium could have a possible result of an overall

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The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains is a non-fiction book written by American writer Nicholas Carr published in 2010. The book follows Carr’s argument that the invention of new technology leads the networking of the brain to significantly change, lowering our attention span and concentration. Carr’s novel became a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Carr utilizes chapter two of his book to explore the history of theories of the brain relating to the topic of brain plasticity. He starts the chapter by introducing Friedrich Nietzsche, who suffered various health problems relating to an incident where he fell off a horse.

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Humans continue to find a ways to make things easier for themselves because it is natural to want less work to do. The Internet and search engines blew up in popularity because of their efficiency. Despite their convenience, several people believe that technology and the Internet have negative effects on people. Nicholas Carr, for example, argues that the Internet can have damaging consequences to one’s brain in his essay,“Is Google Making Us Stupid?”.

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In the book, The Shallows, Carr explains how people think they can not reach their full potential without the internet. ”The net also provides a high system for delivering response and rewards. (Pg. 117)” Because the internet can allow people to talk to each other in a matter of seconds, people are always distracted by their

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There is so much information available on the internet for people to look up whatever they want to know or learn. I personally used the internet to learn how to do things, such as cooking recipes, hair styles tip, and research. Also,

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In the book The Shallows author Nicholas Carr explains how he believes that technology is taking over everything and changing the way we think and process information. As a reader I also believe that technology is changing the way we process information because of all the examples he uses to prove his point. In the different chapters he gives examples from past historians and psychologists to explain why he believes the things he does, Carr also interviews college professors and doctors to see if they have noticed a difference in themselves or in patients of theirs with the same problem, and lastly throughout the book and on the internet there are multiple reviews on the opinions of the technology. In the Shallows Nicholas Carr gives examples from past historians and psychologists to explain why he believes the things he does.

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In The Shallows, on page 199, it says, "Although even the initial users of the technology can often sense the changes in their patterns of attention, cognition, and memory as their brains adapt to the new medium, the most profound shifts play out more slowly, over several generations, as the technology becomes ever more embedded in work, leisure, and education- in all the norms and practices that define a society and its culture. " The more technology is involved in their everyday lives, the more it will change how they think and do daily activities. These technologies have impacted their ability to think critically, remember information, and engage with others. According to Clifford Nass, "They're terrible at ignoring irrelevant information; they're terrible at keeping the information in their head nicely and neatly organized; and they're terrible at switching from one task to another. "

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In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr discusses the internet’s effect on human thought. This is perfectly shown in Chapter Nine which is titled “Search, Memory.” Carr speaks on how the internet effects long term memory. The chapter quotes one of the smartest minds in the history of Western Civilization, Socrates. Socrates is quoted, “Writing down their thoughts and reading the thoughts of others had written down, they become less dependent on the contents of their own memory.”

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Today’s innovation is the internet, and the internet is proving to be just the same. Carr says that the attentiveness, thoughtfulness, and socialization of modern day society, or rather the lack of, is to the blame of the internet. Although Carr creates a strong argument, and does nothing but continually back up his thesis with good facts, but it is his actual thesis that I disagree with. Carr constantly states historical and scientific facts that show how the internet is following a path from the past.

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In 1988, the Internet was opened to the public. At that time, not many people were aware of what a huge impact the Internet would have on the lives of future generations and cultures. While it was at first widely accepted by many users because of its astonishingly convenient and unlimited access to information, the enthusiasm for the Internet has more recently diminished and even disappeared in some cases. Many people no longer view the Internet as a helpful tool, but more as a harmful weapon, attacking every area of our lives, including education, communication, literacy, attention span, memory, intelligence, relationships, politics, economics, even sleep, diet, and physical activity. The Internet is ultimately affecting and determining 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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He starts his argument by telling us the effect the internet has had on him and others he has come across. The internet has changed his train of thought and his ability to focus and concentrate. He believes our brains have been reprogramed over time to adjust to the speed and convenience of the internet. Our ability to retain and digest traditional media has also been compromised since we are used to receiving information so rapidly. This is a strong opening argument for his essay.

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Nicholas Carr's argument against the internet was very strong, and it persuaded me. It is very difficult for me to go against his opinion. I agree that the internet is changing us, but not in ways we think. There are long-term effects of using the internet as often as we do. He states that the internet is changing the way our brains function such as having a shorter attention span, negatively changing the way we critically think, and negatively changing our reading skills.

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