Is Google Making USupid Summary

Paper has become near archaic in the new technology based society. Newspapers are running out of business but often find profit margins increasing when there is a shift to online articles. Additionally, technology, such as Google, allows for pieces of literature, art, and music to be shared around the globe in forms of articles, pictures, and videos. Once isolated areas are able to communicate with the rest of the world and our knowledge of everything is expanded. However, arguments regarding this are starting to arise. Critics, such as author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr, tend to look down upon the reliance of the internet, more specifically the chaotic environment provided for users, arguing that we become acclimated to

But Carr is not the only one who believes that technology is changing our minds. Clive Thompson, author of “Smarter Than You think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better,” also insists that technology has impacted us. Although, Thompson seems to disagree that technology is negatively affecting our minds rather he finds that technology is used to elevate us. Much like Thompson’s understanding of how technology affects us, I believe the various technologies we have work to improve us and the way we do things. Whether it is for personal use or business, technology is an important in enhancing ourselves and even allows for more self-expression. Creative expression is used to see a developing thought process and technology allows for blogs and digital art, forms of expression, to be constantly uploaded on the internet. Creative expression is done through art, music, drama, writing, and dance. It contains a variety of ways to express thought and often you can tell the mental maturity of whoever is drawing or writing. Carr

Typically, we think about everyday people, kids, and ourselves. Most everyone has used the internet to think for them some way, what Carr fears, never taking the time to think deeply about what we’ve found. He suggests, instead of technology enhancing our abilities, humans are using technology, as a crutch, to think for them. Carr states that “as we come to rely on to computers mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence of the world that flattens into artificial intelligence” (328). Thompson is not oblivious to the negative aspects of the internet, in fact even he “[is] hoping the trade-off is worth it.” (357). But thinking optimistically, in comparison, Thompson believes we just use technology to outsource our thought process. The way we do things have gone through major changes, as we are constantly refining technology to benefit us, while what we express through this technology rarely changes. Technology can remove aid in externalizing our thought process, making it that much easier to think, and actually allows the mind to declutter, leaving more room for how to express ourselves. As we use it more, we become as Thompson defines as “a centaur: a hybrid beast endowed with the strengths of each” (344). This idea is not lost on Carr, as the consequences are