Is Google Making USupid Joe Kohane Analysis

Introduction: Mankind is in a perpetual state of trying to make living in the world an easier place. In just a few seconds you can access information at the tip of your fingers, instead of having to look through different books to find what you need. But the question arises; Does this boundless place for information really make us more informed than before we had the internet? Joe Keohane the author of the article “How facts backfire” was written during the midterm election to help educate voters that they need to be well informed about their candidate and the situation that is happening around them before they make decisions on who is going to represent them… Nicholas Carr, the author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid” is an American writer

The author states that the biggest flaw in a democracy is the fact that people have the right to vote without them having to have a required background in the topic. He says that people make decisions based off there their morals not on the knowledge they have on a subject. In a democracy the public has the right to vote on certain aspects of the way that they are governed and if they are not informed they might make the wrong decisions on a topic because they don’t know any better. Keohane goes on to explain cognitive dissonance which is where people have two facts that contradict each other, and they end up choosing the fact that is closest to their ideals which is why facts backfire. The author then blames the media forgiving people the wrong information so that they are miss informed on a

They both blame different things for the negative effects that the internet has had on society, Keohane blames the cognitive dissonance and Carr blames the results that technology as had on our mind. Keohane states, “… when people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to correct facts in news stories, they rarely change their mind. In fact, the often became even more strongly in their beliefs.” The author then goes on to explain that people despise being wrong more than anything which then causes them to find information to back up their original choice even if it is misguided which is cognitive dissonance. While on the other hand Carr thinks that technology is the reason for the negative affects of technology. The writer thinks that “And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplating” (57). Carr is explaining his problems that he has been having since he has the internet has took place of “old school” writing he has had problems thinking about anything intensely. The internet has made given our brains the ability to absorb information at a greater rate but it has also made it harder to read long articles the author says, “I skim it”(58) which mean writers are now having trouble reading along with the rest of the