A Response To Nicholas Carr: is Google Making Us Stupid? Google a powerhouse in today’s rapidly expanding technological society. My dad uses Google to access information. You use Google to access information. Google has become commonplace in today’s society, and essential tool for accessing a database full of seemingly limitless information, that can be obtained within seconds. It is a not necessarily a generalization anymore to say that most everybody in western society uses the Internet, and therefore Google to access information that easily. At one point in time access to this type of medium of information may have seemed impossible, and now it’s a reality which makes exponentially quantifies our potential to absorb knowledge. However, …show more content…
Is this new medium of information causing us to disregard critical thinking, and just regurgitate information? In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr, an author who had his worked published in 2008 version of The Atlantic, Carr makes a strong assertion. He states that based off of anecdotal evidence, having access to such a vast database and search engine such as Google is changing the way we conceptualize and absorb information and having adverse effects on human beings. Carr examines several key points in his articles that help assert his thesis. First, that he and his other literature based colleagues are having issues with concentrating on long stretches of text, and he finds himself drifting away, and having difficulty with returning to the same long stretch of the text he was just reading. Carr argues that “I feel as …show more content…
He starts with Socrates and how he fears that with the invention of the written word that humanity will just spout of written text without any wisdom behind it. Granted, there were adverse effects when this technology was brought to bear. However, Carr does great injustice in failing to highlight the many great advancements it brought along, and the further justifies the fact that society as technology advances. Again, Carr brings up Gutenberg's invention of the printing press and fails in my opinion to highlight the inevitable changes and the positives it brought to society. He mentions the oppositions and quotes Hieronimo Squarciafico stating his opinion that it would make men “less studious,” but only dedicates one sentence to the benefits of this remarkable invention. In contrast to Carr, I believe that society is experiencing remarkable progressions after all this is the dawn of the age of technology. Whenever a society exhibits a massive sign of progression, we will see cultural changes on the way absorb technology. Google is a direct byproduct of the coming revolution and will only help to expedite further the intake of information that new generations are expected to reciprocate. Cultural changes have determined that since we have access to a global database, we no longer need to encourage deep thought or complex analysis