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Summary Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

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Since the dawn of time humanity has evolved new ways of thinking, learning, and doing. In the 1980’s the internet was born. The internet has acted as a global source of information. Like everything in this world, the internet has its pros & cons. A number of people have recently suggested that the internet can cause physical and physiological changes to the human brain. The debate is whether the physical and physiological changes are detrimental. In 2008 The Atlantic publishes an article by Nicholas Carr who discusses his take on the critical conversation presenting what the internet is doing to our brains in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. When analyzing Nicholas Carr’s stance on the argument, one would both agree and disagree with Carr. The …show more content…

Carr attacks his readers emotions through the use of known creditable works of others and his own personal experience to further persuade his intended audience that the internet is “chipping away” (Carr, 315) our capacity to learn, think, and comprehend. Carr early on in his article brings his audience a quote from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey that reads “DAVE, stop. STOP, will you? Stop, Dave?” (qtd Kubrick 313) This one side dialogue is from HAL, a supercomputer Carr is comparing himself and his audience to because HAL feels as if his mind is going. In quoting this dialogue Carr is using the “weirdly poignant” (Carr 313) to paint a negative mental image in his audience’s minds. Doing so made his readers easily …show more content…

Carr decides to quote Richard Forman’s sentences from Forman’s recent essay. For example, Carr uses “As we are drained of our inner repertory of dense cultural inheritance, we risk turning into pancake people ---spread wide and thin as we connect with vast network of information accessed by the ere touch of a button” (qtd Forman 328) The essence of Carr’s use of this specific quote from Richard Forman’s essay is paint a negative mental image into his intend audience minds. The words and phrases like pancake people, drained, and risk all have negative cogitations. Carr also puts a lot of effort into getting his readers to feel and to persuade them into feeling the same way he does when stating: “I can feel it too. Over the past years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the natural circuity, reprogramming my memory. My mind isn’t going---so far as I can tell---but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy.” (Carr

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Everyday millions of people across the globe use the internet; many never even leave the computer desk. In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” the author Nicholas Carr, brings up the point that our brains are losing their attention span. He explained that many, including himself, are finding it harder to read long groups of text and articles. Though Carr brings up a good point, his argument lacked factual information, was a little dull, contained next to no credible sources, and is all over the board with he’s ideas, all of these things made his argument weak. Carr’s opening paragraph really grabs your attention, by using quotes from the movie A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick’s.

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Throughout Carr’s article, he explains how he thinks his mind has become slightly more unpredictable

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[he's] lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it" (Carr 3). Through the inclusion of this quote in his essay, Carr builds his pathos as he offers the reader a frighteningly relateable example of humans losing their ability to comprehend expansive texts. Phrases such as "lost the ability to" depict a vain struggle to regain his patience.

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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.

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The writer creates a distinctive and academic diction through the use multiple quotes from studies that agree with his point. One thing that goes hand and hand with tone are different types of rhetorical devices. A rhetorical and literary device that he uses right off the bat in his second paragraph is an anecdote. In fact, after the movie quote the next thing he says is “I can feel it,too” to start his next paragraph. When Carr says,” I'm not thinking the way I use to… naturally had become a struggle.”

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In Carr’s essay he says, “ The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle”(Carr 731). In this one line he establishes his credibility for the entire essay. Just by hinting at the fact at one point he use to be able to read deeply proves he is capable of making an educated analysis on his decline in reading ability. Even though that sentence was “good”, what makes Carr’s essay effective is he proves his credibility one than once to ensure it. In his own words Carr says, “ Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes”(Carr 732).

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Rhetorical Analysis of Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid? We are at a time where technology is widespread; it has become a part of our everyday life leading to advantages and disadvantages. Technology nowadays has become the most important topic to discuss and everyone has developed their own unique opinion. In Nicholas Carr’s article published in 2008, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” he argues that as technology progresses people’s mentality changes.

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That typewriter had really helped him because he didn’t have to focus on the page when writing. Although at the same time, a friend of his had noticed that his writing had changed because of his use of a typewriter. Moving on from the example, Carr delves into the scientific side of the issue by quoting experts that explain how our brains are always changing and adapting to new ways of thinking because new cells continuously form. Now, people are just adapting to the internets speed and efficiency. This adaptation means that the old ways either have to adapt with the times or be forgotten

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In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr he clearly states, “I can feel it, too. 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” (Carr). This quote suggests that the author feels the effects of the Internet just as everyone else has. Most people would agree that use of the Internet is a daily task yet few can deal with life without the Internet. The Net has made life easier but as Carr suggest it is my contention that it is changing the way people think thus making us “stupid”.

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Some of his main points that he pointed out was that how we have became too reliant on the Internet and never really learn the material because we have such easy access to this information. Just like how Plato explained on a stone slab a thousand years ago, and just like my example about my truck. Also he mentions that how our minds are becoming warped with reading tons of quick articles that are full of information and having a negative effect on us when we try to read long lengthy articles or books together information, without drifting off and not paying attention to the reading. Finally Carr’s main point of his reading is that he is just worried for up in coming generation of internet users are going to become to dependent on the internet, and even try to make a super computer that is smarter than our brain. Lastly I do believe in what Carr is talking about of how we are becoming to depend towards the Internet, and that how it is shaping our minds.

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However, almost every change has both positive and negative aspects, if a person searches closely enough. Sometimes, a change that is believed to be positive, may actually have negative affects on the recipient of said change, possibly even without their knowledge. This is explored in Nicholas Carr's “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” In this essay Carr voices his frustrations in realizing that use of the Internet, which he believed to be a beneficial invention, was negatively affecting the way that he thought, and making it hard for him to complete activities that he once enjoyed, such as reading long books. When interviewed, Carr's friends and colleagues admitted that they were experiencing similar problems in their concentration.

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A Space Odyssey. Carr used this to show how the internet dehumanized people. He states that the internet makes it harder to concentrate and to sustainably read. For a blogger Bruce Friedman, who had a passion for reading, it has become difficult to finish a blog post. The same is happening with Scott Karp,

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He writes about a feeling of a change of thought process he gets when he reads. Reading books or lengthy articles came easily to Carr, but now he cannot stay focused on what he reads for more than a few pages. He believes his struggle to concentrate on long texts originates from spending too much time online, saying that any kind of research he needs can be found and fulfilled in minutes. Carr also explains that reading online has been converted to skimming pages and searching for summaries of his desired info, instead of reading full length articles. When an author, such as Carr, can directly relate to the subject, it makes his writing much more sincere and

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This is showing us the problem that writer Nicholas Carr believes in. The internet can harm our ability to think deeply because our brains are adaptable. The second piece of evidence from this document is “"... what the Internet seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation," Carr wrote.” The internet is so powerful that even Carr himself has noticed that his

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The Influence of Technology In the essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr argues that utilization of the internet has an adverse effect on our way of thinking and functioning in everyday life. Whether it be reading a newspaper, or scrolling through Facebook, internet media has forever stamped its name in our existence. Carr explains to us that the internet is a tool used every single day in today’s society, but also makes most of us complacent with the ease of having the world at our fingertips.

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