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).
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.
In the essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr, he mentioned that the technology is decreasing our abilities and increasing our dependence on sources such as internet. Carr describes how the internet is affecting the human brain and changing our minds. He explained that the internet is affecting the way that people receive and store information. Carr’s main idea is that extensive computer use is changing the human mind, mostly in negative ways because spending too much time on the internet can cause people to become lazy. He thought that the internet is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers.
Brainless.com: Rhetorical Strategies in Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Do we depend on the Internet to answer all of our questions? Nicholas Carr, an American author, wrote “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” published in 2008 in The Atlantic, and he argues about the effects of the Internet on literacy, cognition, and culture. Carr begins his argument with the ending scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
As earlier stated, over the years people have become intact with technology thus society adapted to technology in their lives, making their lives easier. “Our use of the Net will only grow, and its impact on us will only strengthen, as it becomes even more present in our lives.” (92) The
Carr believe the internet changes the way we think. In my opinion, Carr story was to influence, not persuade. In Nicholas Carr’s essay, “Is google making us
In our day and time, using the internet as our main source of information is very common. In Nicholas Carr’s essay on “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, he discusses how the internet is redeveloping the way each human thinks, feels, and learns. Carr feels the internet is taking over how we, as people, are transforming the way we comprehending different subjects. The internet is an essential part of this world and everyone’s lifestyle who has access to it. There has been a generous amount of reliance upon the internet doing a variety of tasks that, in the past, others had to do for themselves.
In the book The Shallows author Nicholas Carr explains how he believes that technology is taking over everything and changing the way we think and process information. As a reader I also believe that technology is changing the way we process information because of all the examples he uses to prove his point. In the different chapters he gives examples from past historians and psychologists to explain why he believes the things he does, Carr also interviews college professors and doctors to see if they have noticed a difference in themselves or in patients of theirs with the same problem, and lastly throughout the book and on the internet there are multiple reviews on the opinions of the technology. In the Shallows Nicholas Carr gives examples from past historians and psychologists to explain why he believes the things he does.
In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr discusses the internet’s effect on human thought. This is perfectly shown in Chapter Nine which is titled “Search, Memory.” Carr speaks on how the internet effects long term memory. The chapter quotes one of the smartest minds in the history of Western Civilization, Socrates. Socrates is quoted, “Writing down their thoughts and reading the thoughts of others had written down, they become less dependent on the contents of their own memory.”
Nicholas Carr, What the Internet is doing to Our Brains The Shallows (2010) asserts that, “The price we pay to assume technology’s power is alienation.” He supports this assertion by saying, “They both ultimately achieve their mental and behavioral effects by shaping the synaptic organization of the brain.” Also by, “ We long to keep it activated.” The writer concludes in order for people to improve their thoughts, they will have to cope with the new technology and how they think. Carr believes that technology is taking over how people interact with each other.
In 1988, the Internet was opened to the public. At that time, not many people were aware of what a huge impact the Internet would have on the lives of future generations and cultures. While it was at first widely accepted by many users because of its astonishingly convenient and unlimited access to information, the enthusiasm for the Internet has more recently diminished and even disappeared in some cases. Many people no longer view the Internet as a helpful tool, but more as a harmful weapon, attacking every area of our lives, including education, communication, literacy, attention span, memory, intelligence, relationships, politics, economics, even sleep, diet, and physical activity. The Internet is ultimately affecting and determining the
Our way of thinking is beginning to change to the way that computers do. Advancements are made everyday. These new advancements are attempting to make life in general easier for everyone. Nicholas Carr makes the claim that, “as the internet because our primary source of the information it is affecting our ability to read books and other long narratives.” Carr suggests that using the internet is altering the way that our minds operate.
Imagine being in a room full of people, but no one talks or looks at each other. In fact, each person is plugged to a machine. This is how technology has affected society. Some people believe that technology has begun to manipulate our brains, while others claim it is taking intimacy from our relationships. The writers, Nicholas Carr and Sherry Tunkle, explain in their articles how internet use is affecting the way humans think and feel.
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.
In only a couple of decades, technology has imbedded itself into people’s lives, to the point it would be difficult to live without using technology. In Neil Postman’s speech “Informing Ourselves to Death,” he explains how not all technology is being used for what its original purpose was, and how people are starting to drown in the useless information technology gives. Postman also makes the claim, “And therefore, in a sense, we are more naïve than those in the Middle Ages, and more frightened, for we can be made to believe almost anything” (5). Though Postman gave this speech about thirty years ago, this accurately describes modern society. Technology was meant to help people learn and improve their lives, but it has instead increased the naivety of the world.
