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Summary Of Is The Internet Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

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Lincoln High Professor Brian Olson English 110 April 9, 2024 “Is The Internet Making Us Stupid” In his controversial article, Nicholas Carr raises pressing questions about the impact of the internet and search engines like Google. He opens by reflecting on his own experience of struggling to maintain focus while reading lengthy texts after spending so much time skimming information online (Carr 318). This makes Carr question if the internet may be changing our mind, concentration, and how we read. Carr began to pull information from scholars at University College London, who conducted a study to prove that people skim instead of reading.The study showed that “They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they …show more content…

Carr concluded that with each advancement, our brains changed. Carr also points to studies on neuroplasticity, which show that our brains are malleable and can change in response to new experiences and habits. This furthers his theory suggesting that our interactions with the internet could rewire our brains to favor quick browsing over deep, focused thinking. I’m inclined to agree that the internet is having some negative impacts as stated by. Pros and Cons: Is the Internet Making Us Stupid? Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Jan. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/story/pro-and-con-is-the-internet-making-us-stupid, which shows declining IQ tests, after the invention of the internet. This could also be a result of how much information we take in, as stated by Medkour, Younes. “Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?” www.concordia.ca, 15 Jan. 2019, www.concordia.ca/cunews/offices/vprgs/sgs/public-scholars-18/2019/01/15/is-the-internet-making-us-stupid.html. The article explains that because we take in 3 times the amount of information each day than our predecessors, some information is forgotten. Reading Carr’s article, also made me question if we should have limits

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In his essay Is Google Making Us Stupid, Nicholas Carr argues that our dependence on the Internet changes the way we read and think. He includes his own personal testimony to support this claim, as well as others’ descriptions, including several friends, and bloggers that Carr quote. While he lacks scientific proof supporting his claim, multiple testimonies support his claim that the internet has changed the way people think. However, Carr views this negatively, saying that “I’m not thinking the way I used to think… my concentration often starts to drift… I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text” (633-634).

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In the article” Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicholas Carr is trying focus on the audience to capture the audience attention. Also the internet is making people mentally handicapped. People are becoming lazy. Instead of analyzing the book to answer the question, people are typing the questions in on the internet to get the answers the lazy way. People’s brains are negatively affected.

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He notes that the development of writing and the printing press led to significant changes in the way people thought and communicated. By comparing the internet to these historical developments, Carr suggests that the digital age is simply the latest iteration in a long line of technological advances that have fundamentally altered human cognition. In addition, Carr appeals to expert testimony to support his argument. He cites studies and quotes from prominent neuroscientists and researchers who suggest that the internet may be negatively impacting our ability to concentrate and process information.

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The concept that the internet creates a culture of rapid satisfaction and constant distraction is another point Carr makes in his essay. He speaks about how the layout of content on the internet, with its links, ads, and limited reading time, encourages people to scroll rather than read carefully. Carr suggests that this culture of distraction may be the reason behind our inability to focus and concentrate for a longer amount of time. Many of Carr's observations about how reading and thinking have changed in the digital age are in his essay "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" are views that I agree with. My own experience confirms it-

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In the five-year research program, visitors to two specific sites were being examined. It was found that "people using the sites exhibited a form of skimming activity, hopping from one source to another" (Carr). While this evidence is interesting and speaks to changes in the way information is being processed, it does not in fact indicate an overall decrease in intelligence. With this being said, it's hard to use this evidence towards a personal opinion of the internet making people stupid because there is no real data related to intelligence, only the fact that people do indeed skim articles.

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Nicholas Carr 's had made an article 'Is Goggle Making Us Stupid, ' back in 2008. It was an article about how the use of computer and the effects it causes on the human mind thought process. In my opinion, Carr did not have no legitimate studies to back up his own judgment yet, he made some good points. Even though he only got a opinion from his peers, they all seemed to agree on his theory about the internet. I do think the internet makes people lazy when it comes to doing a research project.

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I'm considered to be a millennial and I can honestly say that I've grew up with the privilege of having technology. The internet makes it very easy for us to interact with friends or family and doing research you can even read your favorite books on the web. When watching the video "Is the Internet Making Us Stupid", it pointed out a lot of things I've never thought of before. Nicholas Carr's view on the issue is that the internet is simply a distraction. "When we have new technology that gathers information or communicate for us it changes the way we think", he's implying that our devices we use on a day to day basis, does everything for us we rely more on that then actually relying on our brain to do the work.

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The use of the internet causes our brains to get smaller and we depend too much on the internet doing basic work that we should usually do ourselves. In my observation, I would notice instead of adding and subtracting, multiplying, or dividing numbers on my hand and paper, I would now use a calculator to quickly find the answer. This is good and bad because most schools currently would allow calculators on exams for this specific reason and to not waste time, but also this can cause us of getting out of the habit of doing these simple skills that we should know instead of depending on the technology to do it for us. Furthermore, I also notice this with reading books for an assignment and how instead of reading a whole entire book for an essay for a class, I would most likely just look up the summary, and the main points of the book online and just paraphrase and make it into my own words. This also has advantages and disadvantages.

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What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr. It inform us that the internet is becoming our primary source of finding information. It is saying that it affects our ability to read books and long papers. The main points for this article are how the internet is affecting us, what we are becoming, also that we are no longer able to focus in long readings, how the internet is becoming our primary source to everything, and the evolution of technology.

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As the internet becomes our primary source of information, many people believe that it is changing or rewriting the human brain and affecting the way we think. I say that they are right. We use the internet like its backup memory and do not bother to remember, we hardly give tasks and assignments our full attention and our concentration is suffering, and we are becoming more addicted to technology. One reason we believe the internet is affecting our brain is that we use the internet like its backup memory and do not bother to remember. We do not have to remember mailing addresses or long phone numbers anymore.

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Steven Pinker wrote “Mind over Mass Media” which tells of this claim is more false than true. Pinker reminds us that if technology was actually making us more stupid, then how are we scientifically better than ever before. Critics are believing that the mind is being shaped by everything it is seeing and hearing. The only problem here is the lack of self control people have when it comes to the distracting parts of the internet we use so often. People tend to find themselves reading tweets instead of articles now.

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Pinker claims in his article Mind Over Mass Media (2017) that the Internet has increased knowledge and discovery; scientific discoveries are at an all-time high, but if the Internet had negative effects on intelligence this would not be the case (Pinker 1030). Instead, the Internet has increased access to information and decreased the inconvenience of it. To find information, people used to have to go to libraries and search for hours for the right book. Now, people can simply Google search anything they want to know. This is not a sacrifice of intelligence or communication but rather a flourishing of it.

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As I sit and try to write this, all I can do is steal quick glances over towards my phone. While I watched Carr's commentary on "Is the internet making us stupid?" all I can think of is, yes. Today, society relies on the web for many things, with a quick flick of the finger or with a quick google search we can have any information given to us without actually learning or thinking about anything. Marshall McLuhan, once said," if something works, it's obsolete".

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I think no matter what people in modern world have to deal with both sides. Does internet make us smart or stupid? Well there has been so many study so far and one of them is the article No, Doofus: The Internet Isn't Making You Stupid, Greg Steven. The article shows us good and bad sides of internet, for example the good side showed that intendent not only make individuals stupid, but also sometimes make them smarter.

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Nicholas Carr's argument against the internet was very strong, and it persuaded me. It is very difficult for me to go against his opinion. I agree that the internet is changing us, but not in ways we think. There are long-term effects of using the internet as often as we do. He states that the internet is changing the way our brains function such as having a shorter attention span, negatively changing the way we critically think, and negatively changing our reading skills.

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