Summary Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

Today’s civilization is on the cutting edge of scientific innovation and technology. This is seemingly a good thing, as with inventions like the internet, we have unparalleled access to knowledge and information. Research which comprised hours spent digging in the archives of a library can be done much faster and more efficiently at home on a computer with internet access. On the surface, we see only positives. But, when examining more closely, a detrimental effect on human cognition is recognized: the loss of attention and focus. Nicholas Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” speaks of the positive, but mainly negative effects technology has on our ability to process and understand information. Furthermore, technology has not only provided

Carr is an experienced author, who has written for, “The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Wired, Nature, MIT Technology Review” (“Nicholas Carr”) and other journals. The mentioned periodicals are all credible information outlets, and some, like Wired and MIT Technology Review, specialize in technology, adding to Carr’s credibility as a science and technology writer. As well, he has a “B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A., in English and American Literature and Language, from Harvard University” (“Nicholas Carr”). This shows Carr has the academic training to be labeled an expert. Correspondingly, Lightman has a rigorous scientific background with a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, with his works appearing in, “The Atlantic, Granta, the New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books” (“Alan Lightman”). With certainty, Lightman is a trustworthy representative concerning to the natural sciences, specifically astrophysics as his experience writing about the subject, and formal education qualify him as an expert. Also, they both draw on the opinions of other experts in their essays. Marshall McLuhan, Bruce Friedman, and Maryanne Wolf are a handful of experts Carr uses to validate his opinion, each pertaining to a specific specialty to provide validity to his ideas. Likewise, Garth Illingworth a fellow astrophysicist, and the works of historic scholars like Galileo ae referred to several times

Carr is much firmer in his belief that the internet is affecting our cognition, then Lightman is in determining humanity’s role in the universe. Carr is firm that, “Internet use effects cognition,” (Carr 326), making us “‘mere decoders of information’” (Carr 327). Lightman’s essay is more inquisitive and less clear cut and poses questions, rather than statements like, “to what extent is the new universe, vastly larger than anything conceived of in the past, part of nature?” (Lightman 504). In the totality of his essay, Carr provides evidence to support his positon, like of the University College London study on database user behaviour to illustrate that web users skim, rather than closely read online articles. Providing evidence, and making connections is characteristic of insight and we can see this in Carr’s essay. Instead, Lightman provides tentative solutions, with hypothetical reasoning, “If some cosmic intelligence created the universe, life would seem to have been only an afterthought. And if life emerges by random processes, vast amounts of lifeless material are needed for each particle of life. Such numbers cannot help but bear upon the question of our significance in the universe” (Lightman 507). The quote shows Lightman is more theoretical in approach, and does not provide a definitive answer, leaving the reader to decide on the evidence he has presented. Carr’s essay