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Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas G. Carr

521 Words3 Pages

The Internet offers an abundance of information and has become a universal medium. The ease of access and the fast-paced nature of online content has tinkered with an individual’s mind and how they function. Nicholas G. Carr’s wrote an excerpt titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid” where he argued that the Internet, with all its simplicity, is limiting his capacity to concentrate. With the powerful advantages of using the Internet, it does not necessarily mean individuals must sacrifice their ability to read deeply and think reflectively. As with most topics, it depends on the individual and the medium they are using. Scholars from University College London found that, “people using the sites exhibited ‘a form of skimming activity,’ hopping from …show more content…

Additionally, the internet is associated with instant gratification. When people use a search engine like Google to research a specific topic, they want instant access to the information. The internet is essentially viewed as a tool that makes working and researching much easier. With that mindset, individuals are only interested in consuming information as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Although it can hinder a person’s ability to read and think critically, it does not sacrifice it. As mentioned before, the medium plays an important role. When using the internet, it is tempting to go to Youtube, play a game, or switch to a different website. The internet, as a medium designed for efficiency, scatters an individual’s attention and diffuses their concentration. With the advancement of software and the internet, people don’t feel the need to read and reflect critically. They become accustomed to the internet giving a summary, or the most important points to a specific topic. I could relate to this myself. When I do research on a topic, I tend to skim an article or find a quick summary of the topic. That is only for efficiency and

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In, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (2008), Nicholas Carr maintains that the advent of the Internet produced a shallow generation of information consumers who lack the ability to deeply engage with a text and think critically about it. Carr supports his claim by drawing on numerous personal and historical anecdotes and one scientific study. The purpose of Carr’s article is to open dialogue about the potentially adverse effects the Internet could have human cognitive processes to allow individuals to begin to question the impact that the Internet is having on their lives. Carr establishes an informal, causal relationship with the audience. The audience of The Atlantic is generally well-educated, upper-middle class individuals who are likely approaching the article with a relaxed, non-critical lens (most likely embracing the article as a form of “think piece”).

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The article by Nicholas Carr: “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is Doing to our brains” (2008), explains the effect that the internet has on the way people go on about their daily lives and how it influences their habits and thoughts. He uses easy and not-strictly academic words along his article to argue that people’s concentration skills have reduced because of their high use of the internet to find information. He does so with the use of literary elements such as diction, tone and poetic devices. Therefore, by using these strategies, Carr creates a homespun persona with which he transcends his message to approach his readers.

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A well-known author, Nicholas Carr, in his article, “Is Google Making us Stupid” explains to us in great detail why he believes that the internet is affecting our brains in a negative way. In this article, Carr wants us to believe that Google is making us stupid because we are losing our ability to focus on longer novels and bigger word choices. His purpose is to try and show us why he believes that using the internet has lowered our ability to read and think the way we used to. He wants to show all of us readers, who are always on the internet everyday of our lives, through personal experiences and research how the internet has becoming damaging to our brains. Carr is able to use logos, pathos and Ethos to show the readers his purpose.

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In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” published in The Atlantic on July 2008, American writer Nicholas Carr comes to the realization that the constant usage of the internet is changing how the average person reads and remembers. Carr says: “The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes”. Nicholas Carr believes that the internet is a valuable tool, but there are concerns based on how it is used. The author thinks that this can be seen in the fact that people are more likely to skim an article to try and get the information wanted, causing an easy and lazy way of achieving the wanted information.

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Thesis: The Internet, according to the author, is modifying the way that we read and take in knowledge through our senses. Carr recognized that he was losing his ability to read deeply into a text. When he sat down to read a short article, he caught himself skimming over the text. He became

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While it is true that internet is changing the way we think, but it is not making us stupid. The author speaks that he is not the only one, and that his friends have the same problems. For them it is hard to concentrate in long readings. “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused” (Carr 573).

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In a world that remains largely consumed in technology, we have to wonder if the Internet, that is simply a touch away, is making us stupid. In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” author Nicholas Carr talks about his struggle to stay engaged for more than about three pages while reading a book (The Atlantic). We have become consumed in the idea of convince, so we have learned to skim news articles, web articles, and social media.

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985 Words | 4 Pages

Today, in our society, we constantly rely on the internet. There are many mixed opinions debating whether it’s a positive or negative having the access to it. Nicholas Carr and David Wolman expressed their opposing opinions, whether the internet is a good or bad thing. In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” , Carr explains that he doesn’t favor internet and claims that this has caused him to become more distracted when reading.

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Is Google Making USupid Analysis

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First, to support his argument, he emphasizes the negative experience that many readers cannot focus on critical thinking when they read online because they scan and jump quickly from an article to other articles. He proves this common problem by providing several anecdotes of Scott Karp, Bruce Friedman, and his friends, who are facing the same issue of reading (Carr 315-316). Second, he presents credible sources from neurological and psychological professionals to demonstrate the internet has changed the way how the users read and think. Third, he presents the examples that how human brain has been adjusted to adapt to the invention of the typewriter, clock, digital computer, Taylor’s scientific time management system, and the search engine, such as Google (Carr 318-326). Finally, he analyzes Google’s purpose of the collection of information and its desire of an acritical intelligence development.

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The Influence of Technology In the essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr argues that utilization of the internet has an adverse effect on our way of thinking and functioning in everyday life. Whether it be reading a newspaper, or scrolling through Facebook, internet media has forever stamped its name in our existence. Carr explains to us that the internet is a tool used every single day in today’s society, but also makes most of us complacent with the ease of having the world at our fingertips.

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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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