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Summary Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

453 Words2 Pages

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. Obviously, his tone on the issue is rather annoyed that people are not using such a helpful tool in the way it was intended …show more content…

On the twelfth page of his paper, he references Plato’s Phaedrus, stating that “Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would.... ‘cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful’” (Carr 12). By mentioning this simplified example, Carr is able to assist readers in realizing that avoiding the use of our brains will in turn weaken them. Additionally, Carr includes metaphors which incite pathos. He comments that our minds are being subject to pressure to “operate as high-speed data-processing machines” (Carr 12). This is an unhealthy expectation, and it leads most individuals to turn to websites such as Google in order to supplement (or even replace) their own brainpower. Comparing the expectations of our minds to be akin to some sort of supercomputer incites concern in the reader… they may realize for the first time the truth in this statement. Overall, Carr used far more rhetorical devices within his essay than I have been able to elaborate on (including, but not limited to, precise diction, a somewhat casual tone in order to help readers relate, and appositives to build his

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