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Is Google Making USupid Analysis

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Google and reading
“I am not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I am reading.” This quote is from the article, Is Google Making Us Stupid? Written by Carr Nicholas in 2008. In the article, the author illustrates how the internet has progressively influenced human cognitive abilities.
Carr begins his article by giving a personal experience on how the internet has made him a poor reader. He illustrates how it was initially easy for him to read through a lengthy book or article without losing attention or getting bored. Irrespective of how long the narrative was, Carr would get caught up in the pose and turn from one page to another at ease (Carr1). But his problems began when he started spending too much time on …show more content…

A good number of those who shift from reading print books to using online sources do so in efforts to seek for convenience but end up noting that their way of thinking has changed. For instance, Bruce Friedman who is a pathologist said, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print” (2). “Friedman admits that he can comprehend short passages from online sources but has totally lost ability to concentrate when reading a print source that is beyond three paragraphs” (Carr …show more content…

Results from this study showed that such people would hop from one article to another without reading it in deep to understand the concept. Despite the current ubiquity of text messaging, either through mobile phones or e-mails, which has made researchers get into a conclusion that presently people do read more than in the last Centuries, the intent of reading is different. Carr uses such instances to show the reader that by changing the style of reading from print to internet sources, the mode of thinking changes completely. “The web promotes immediacy in preference to interpretative reading, and this kills our cognitive capacity” (Carr2). According to Reading is an instinctive skill that depends on our interpretation abilities and, therefore, our cognitive circuitry that develops from the internet is entirely different from that of printed works.
The author goes on to explain how people are guided by machines such as their watches to act other than following their natural senses. As people continue to depend on the web for everything, their mind becomes outdated such that they are no longer able to contemplate whichever information is at their exposure. Such instances leave me wondering whether Google is interested in driving us to

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In “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, the author, Nicholas Carr, is arguing against the effect of our increased access to information. He is unsettled by the common idea that we’d all “be better off” if our brains were supplemented, or even replaced, by an artificial intelligence. Carr describes how am immediate access to a rich store of information from the Net has shaped his process of thought by reducing his capacity for concentration and contemplation. He is worried that placing efficiency and immediacy above all else is weakening our capacity to make rich mental connections that form when we read deeply without distraction. Carr uses an anecdote of the printing press to demonstrate how equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.

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Summary One Nicholas Carr in his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” states that the internet is causing deficiencies in reading and has caused people to have brief attention spans while reading a book. Carr immediately goes into explanation on how he can no longer sit to read without becoming “fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do.” Carr then uses the rhetorical device of ethos by using creditable sources to back his claim. He uses a claim from scholars at University College London that stated, “It is clear that users are not reading online in traditional sense,” therefore stating people are skimming and scanning for information.

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Nicholas Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” discusses the benefits and dangers associated with technology, and the internet, or Google is the focus of the essay. He argues that technology is changing humans cognitive thought process, and not in a healthy way. Carr admits that he notices the changes in his own ability to concentrate and comprehend lengthy readings. Not only does he express concern about his own capability of reading he also mentions several other bloggers, and philosophers’ experiences with their ability to decipher long articles. Moreover, he emphasizes historical technologies that have influenced change in our intellectuality such as, the typewriter, the printing press, and the mechanical clock.

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