In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr writes about how he has a challenging time reading books that after a few pages he loses concentration and that his mind wanders to other things. The reading that use to come natural to him no longer does and he believes the internet is to blame, what once took a few hours searching through multiple books in the library for information now can be found in a few minutes searched on the internet. He also mentions other bloggers that confess how they either no longer read books or do not read articles that are longer than a few paragraphs or that they just skim articles on the internet. Carr lists many posts from other people also from different years some going back to the 1980s.
In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicholas Carr tries to point out that as the internet becomes more of our primary source of information, Carr claims that the internet well affect how the human brain process information. In the article Carr tries to explain what he means by using a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey where HAL (the supercomputer) is being Disassembled but the man the machine nearly killed. Carr focuses his attention on the fact that the computer is starting to ‘feel’ its “brain” being taken away as the man takes his memory circuits. Nicholas then goes in to set this place into his theory to the reader.
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.
Everyone has a different view of technology and the internet, and how or if it is affecting us as people. In Nicolas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” he offers his views on the subject. He expresses his concerns about what humans excessive internet use could be doing to the actual functioning of their brains. Lauren Brown and Kay Sanborn, both have their own ideas on the subject some of which agree with Carr and others that disagree. I believe that the internet and technology have their pros and cons and whether we see both views or just one is up to us.
Nicholas Carr is a writer who writes in these kind of field: technology, business, and culture. Carr wrote this essay called, “Is Google Making us Stupid”; Carr fully explains how internet changes people’s thinking, a way of reading, and knowledge with rhetoric strategies. For logos, Carr thoroughly supports his arguments with great supporting points from credit sources. He explains how the internet affects us in reading. For pathos, he points out that human’s brain would work differently since we are using the internet widely comparing to the generation, whom lives without the internet.
In the essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” by Nicholas Carr, he explores the idea that new technology is changing the way we approach literature. Not only has the approach changed, but also the way we process the information, or at what length. Information is available and compact in today's society, this is changing our thinking; therefore our reading patterns has altered. We are becoming as the essay refers to as “Pancake people.” Society can be spread wide in the things they know, but are thin in the quantity of one specific area.
In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” (2008), Nicholas Carr argues that the use of the internet has affected human beings to process information. For example, reading in front of a screen and reading a printed book is not the same thing. Carr supports his assertion by his own and others experiences reading and searching information online and viewing how it has negatively shaped their ability to read long texts. He states that he cannot concentrate reading a long piece for a certain amount of time without losing focus. His purpose is to is to warn the internet and technology users of the adverse mental effects that these devices have on individuals.
Meredith Weese D. Ballenger ENGL – 112 10 March 2023 Evaluation Essay Nicholas Carr’s article in The Atlantic magazine July/August 2008 issue titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid” purpose is to inform the readers. With the way the internet and its vast amount of information at the tip of our fingers has altered our ability to dive deep into readings. Whether it is for educational purposes or pleasure our ability to spend hours in a book have changed. Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” achieved its purpose because the examples he used from himself and others, the writing is clear easy to follow as he makes relevant references to the way other technologies have changed our way of thinking, his writing is objective.
For my analysis essay, I will be analyzing the effectiveness of the rhetorical devices in Nicholas Carr ’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. Carr, a writer who primarily focuses on technology and business, makes a bold claim that the ability to simply search for answers to our issues is weakening our problem solving skills. As the saying goes: if you do not use it, you lose it. Although he admits that the advantages of having unlimited knowledge at our fingertips is invaluable, he also claims that humans tend to misuse the Internet- as soon as anything requires true thought, they go to search engines which think for them.
“Is Google Making Us Stupid” written by Nicholas Carr is a great article. He attempts to help us understand that as a society the more that the World Wide Web turns into our essential source of data, it starts to lower our ability to read books. Despite the fact that reading offers information that the internet may already have, it makes the learning process slower. One of the first things that Carr makes clear in this writing piece is that he loses focus very quickly when reading. Carr felt that the web should make searching things quick and easy.
In the article by Nicholas Carr “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” the author is attempting to persuade readers to reflect upon the impact the internet has had in their ability to think critically. Carr is trying to prove that while yes, the internet is great, the benefits do not outweigh the consequences. Saying the internet is something people should try to stay away from is an argument that most of society would probably not agree with. Even though it might be difficult to acknowledge the consequences of the internet, I think that Carr provides an effective argument to do so.
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.
“Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory…” or so Nicholas Carr feels. Could you imagine a Dawn of artificial intelligence? A new world where the human mind was replaced with technology. There is an article that Carr wrote, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” where he describes, in great detail, the fact that he feels the internet is changing our minds and revolutionizing the way we think; but is that such a bad thing? Carr believes so.
In Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid” I disagree that his use of support doesn’t work to make his point in this essay because it is too biased. Carr’s article shows a lot of support to his hate towards the internet by quoting himself along with his other fellow writers who are a part of an older generation like Carr himself and only includes one study from University College London. Carr mainly focuses on his anecdotes to help support his essay which really doesn’t give the audience actual information, although he makes a compelling point that Google or the internet itself is making us stupid, but what Carr has not included was any evidence about the good parts about the internet. What Carr was lacking in his essay was that
Google, this giant of the new technology, according to the author of the article submitted to our analysis, seems like an almost unavoidable application in all the currencies used in the world to the point where one could say that it governs and controls the individuals and the companies over the past years and today. Nicholas Carr in "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" submitted to our analysis is an illustrative case that shows the domination and control of memories in people. The author here will try to express the impact that this technology has on his ability to focus on reading and writing, reflecting, thinking, and perceiving the world. Carr begins his story to express his feeling of trouble and fear for his memory in full gestation and mutation,
