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Summary Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

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How does the Internet affect your attention span? Nicholas Carr argues that the Web is detrimental to your ability to focus on literature. He focuses on his personal experiences and what other scholars say about this phenomenon. I believe that having the Web at your disposal makes it easier to focus, considering you can clear up anything you come to be stuck on while reading. With the Internet comes the ability to read something that may be out of a person’s education level since they can search any terminology that is more in depth. Being able to read text from those who devote their lives to changing and developing that field, makes it easier to trust. When a person reads an author’s work it is nice to know whether they take that article …show more content…

The invention of the Internet is no different. Think about the amount of time that could be spent in a library, looking through book after book for a single, possibly not too important, piece of information. Due to the Internet, this will likely not be a scene that humanity will endure any further. Although, this is not the topic in question. The question is whether or not this source has affected our ability to focus on literature. This question is something that is prominent throughout Nicholas Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, which he discusses in detail the accounts he, as well as other scholars have encountered. Carr argues that the method of skimming through articles for important information is leading us to do the same with books, or other longer texts. Although there may be a level of disconnect due to the method used on online articles, Clive Thompson, author of “Smarter Than You Think”, words it well with “We tolerate their cognitive hassles and distractions for the enormous upside of being connected, in new ways, to other people” (Thompson 356-357). The “their” he is referring to in that quote is our digital environments. This simply means that you must deal with the hardships that come with the Internet to enjoy what it has to offer. Although Carr shows some of the downsides, I believe the upside is more …show more content…

Thompson states how it is possible to maintain mindfulness as long as there is no laziness while reading. This means that taking the time to read all articles thoroughly will be beneficial in the long run, for skimming articles leads to an unsavory habit of getting complacent while reading. Su and Thompson both display their fear when it comes to how the Internet is affecting our social behaviors. They discuss how it is leading to people becoming less sociable and more likely to dodge social events. Carr argues for his concerns involving the Internet, including how it is affecting his ability to pay attention to long pieces of literature and how other scholars alike are having similar complications. They all cite numerous sources of statistics, but Thompson draws attention to the fact that Carr only cites one brain-scanning study. The fact that he only cites one of these studies leads me to believe that it is not a study backed up enough to be a redeemable source. Thompson also talks about he has seen the effects how the Internet eats at a person’s attention span. Considering Thompson is one of the opponents against the accusation that the Internet is a factor to our deteriorating focus, leads to the sense that there is credibility behind Carr’s main argument. The main argument for Carr being that the Internet is detrimental to focus. Su’s article is littered with statistical evidence showing how hard he

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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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In Nicholas Carr's article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” the author argues that the Internet has become a new form of acquiring knowledge in people’s lives. Additionally, the author supports his own statement by demonstrating that within just a few clicks, one can instantly gain any information or article online without the need to visit and search a physical library. However, even though the Internet ameliorates the quality and quantity of resources to gain knowledge, he believes that as the source of knowledge is replaced by a convenient web page, society becomes easily distracted. In Clive Thompson's article, “Smarter Than You Think.

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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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718 Words | 3 Pages

But little did they know it would come so soon. In the article, Carr talks about how much he loses focus when reading a book and he relates this to the short memory span that he claims is caused by modern day technology being more entertaining. He goes on to say he cannot focus because he is used to blogs and movies instead of books. This is because of the fact that it is much easier and more to the point by using technology to find things that would normally take hours of research.

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429 Words | 2 Pages

In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, he claims that the Internet is affecting the way humans process information. Carr expresses that the Internet is significantly decreasing our ability to concentrate and process thoughts for an extensive period of time. He believes this is because of our large dependence on the Internet. Carr is able to connect with this idea as he feels that, like other Internet users, his cognitive behavior has changed. He determined that his way of processing information has transformed as he has made a habit of merely skimming the text and not stopping to analyze and take in the information that he is reading.

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2000 Words | 8 Pages

He backs up one of his claims that the internet is affecting humanity's cognitive abilities by using the opinion of a scholarly neuroscientist from the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, saying that, “The adult mind is very plastic, it has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions” (Carr

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We want answers now and don’t want to get up or stop what we are doing to get them. Carr’s argument that having the ability to get answers online is hindering our concentration could possibly be linked to Cullington’s theory that texting is affecting our writing. Nicholas Carr is a writer, so prior to the internet he used to have to conduct all of his research at the library. He would spend hours

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In the passage Does the Internet Make You Dumber Carr claims that the internet yields our cognitive abilities. Although there is a lot that Carr discuses that I agree with there are some points I disagree with. The study he provided where some college students were allowed to use the internet during a lecture and the rest had to keep their laptops closed showed that students who did browse the internet did worse then those who did not. This is not just about the internet if you do anything besides pay attention in a lecture you are not going to do well.

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940 Words | 4 Pages

The Internet has become a great tool for our use in finding information. Search engines like Google allow us to quickly find any information that we are looking for and therefore increasing our knowledge on a topic. However, recently there have been some people who believe search engines like Google are doing the opposite and is making us “stupid’'. They believe that the Internet is replacing knowledge with efficiency. In Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” which was published in The Atlantic in 2008, Carr makes the argument that reading online is less thought provoking than reading books.

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In his essay, he writes “once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Nicholas Carr 227). He also states that as the internet becomes our primary source of information, we are distracted, and it begins to affect our ability, or at least our willingness, to read books and long pieces. In his piece, Carr refers to a 5-year study in the UK, which found that people visiting sites "exhibited 'a form of skimming activity, ' hopping from one source or site to another, and rarely returning to any source they 'd already visited. " Carr acknowledges that people read more because of the Web, but deplores that "our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged."

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942 Words | 4 Pages

People searching for immediacy and skimming through texts might play a role in the lessening of attention spans but it seems to be more of a product of choice and self discipline, rather than a product of using the Internet. Carr’s argument about the Internet causing these effects on cognition seems to be an excuse for an individual’s own habits. Sometimes, I almost feel the need to be distracted and compelled to check my phone, email, Facebook etc. However, I found that to be my choice. Whenever I tell myself that I need to get work done before indulging in an Internet-savvy society or when I put my phone somewhere that is out of sight, my urge to use technology has diminished almost completely because of the self discipline I have enforced.

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643 Words | 3 Pages

In The Atlantic “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr notifies us on the ways that technology is effecting our brains in a negative way. This article starts off by talking about the internet and how it is and can be the source for almost anything. That being said, we are becoming defenseless on technology in things like work, reading, and writing. This article demands that this technology is a very big disturbance in our lives. We practically live off of this technology and commonly this media has to live up to the expectations, which us, as the audience have everything handed to us.

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In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr feels that over past few years there’s been a change in the way he thinks. Carr observes that there is something that is changing his memory and restructuring his brain’s way of thinking. Carr suggests that research that would require hours in library going through bundles of text has now ended up in few searches on google, which has degraded the power of contemplation and concentration in a human brain. Carr points out that he is not the only one with this reading problem he has other acquaintances that have similar problem of focusing on large pieces of writing.

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When reading something lengthy, Carr notices he loses focus because he knows that the internet is more convenient. Other people also notice that they lose focus easily due to spending a lot of time on their computers or

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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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