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The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains By Nicholas Carr

457 Words2 Pages

The internet has been, arguably, the most influential form of technology to be introduced in the past hundred years. With this creation, the world as we know it has been connected in ways that were never dreamed of before. Peoples from thousands of miles away are able to converse and spread their ideas with a simple push of a button. Cultures have interacted like never before. This, in return, has caused a new information age that has enlightened the world as we start the 21st century. However, this new information age has come with a price. In the book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr, the author discusses how the internet is causing a change in the way people read and see things. He also mentions how …show more content…

He uses examples from his own experience with the change that had came with his long-term computer usage. These changes would develop fear in the average reader. Carr states in The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, “My mind would get caught up in the twists of the narrative of turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration starts to drift after a page or two. I get fidgety, lose thread, and begin looking for something else to do.”(Carr, p. 5) This phrase causes a sense of fear within the average reader. What the internet is doing to our brain is like something from a horror movie; when an aberration begins to possess the main character and slowly changing him or her. This phrase also encourages a sense of familiarity with the author. This negatively affects our thought process after continuous computer usage. Carr goes on to elaborating on another case to work with our sense of emotions. He states, “We want to be interrupted, because each interruption brings us a valuable piece of information. To turn off these alerts is to risk feeling out of touch, or even socially isolated” (Carr p.133). This quote explains how humans have a natural sense of the need to be connected and that most people does not like the fear isolation, thus the phrase appeals to another

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In Nicholas Carr's article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" is to inform the younger, upcoming generations on how the Internet may have negative effects on the human mind, in that, the way in which we abuse the Internet and not let our brains figure things out without the need of searching it on Google. Nicholas Carr begins by explaining how he feels that the Internet is causing his focus issues, in which he cannot keep focus while reading a book. Carr has his own personal experiences with the negative effects of the Internet, and he also provides research on how other writers had agreed with him on the subject to help support his strategies of logos. The use of the evidence from the other writers helps to draw in the reader and show them the effects of the Internet. Apparently reading on the Internet doesn't let people read the entire article and it is seen that they go from page to page, losing focus quickly.

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Nicholas Carr is a writer that has expanded his writing to books, periodical and even has a blog at roughttype.com; his writing focus is about technology and culture. He addressed the issue of how technology can be a great and awful thing to use at the same time in his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr made an ongoing debate where technology is making people stupid because they are spending a lot of time researching and this is causing people considerate less while using the reading skill but at the same time technology saves times, can expand more on the topic, find any information etc. With regards “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

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In “Is Google Making Us Stupid” Nicholas Carr Provides his theory on how the internet is having a negative impact on the way people think and process with their brains. Carr states that, “I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet.” (409) Carr simply puts it out there that we as human beings spend way too much time on our computers, tablets, phones, and other handheld devices that seem to chip away at our brains. Spending a lot of time online seems to sometimes make us “zombie-like”.

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One of the most compelling claims Carr makes to support his arguments is on the damaging consequences of continuously high usage of the internet which inadvertently diminishes one’s ability to focus and read long passages. Although, the internet has many benefits from quickly gathering information for research, versus the lengthy time it takes using books, Carr asserts reading on the internet is depleting his level of deep concentration. The effects of skimming the surface of articles are draining and robbing our brain’s process of thought patterns.

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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?”

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Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy.” (52) After giving his opinion, he talks about how his friends agreed with his way of not being able to fully focus because of the internet. Carr also tells us about how several types of online passages have changed over the years he said that newspapers and magazines have added “capsule summaries”. (Carr 57). Carr shows a study that was done by researchers at the University College London, on how people skimmed pages and move from one topic to the next based on distraction.

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While it is true that internet is changing the way we think, but it is not making us stupid. The author speaks that he is not the only one, and that his friends have the same problems. For them it is hard to concentrate in long readings. “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused” (Carr 573).

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The Net is the most powerful tool that exists, it is mind-altering technology and without it, people think they are not able to reach their full potential, but people are losing their social skills in the process, The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. In the book, The Shallows, the author explains how the internet is ruining our minds Carr explains how the internet is mind-altering technology. The internet pollutes our society.

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Carr cites Socrates’ opinion as important and it develops credibility for Carr, because it shows the concerns respected figures had about its effect on the public as each revolutionary technology became popular. Additionally, Carr mentions his personal experiences with the internet and technology to further his credibility as a knowledgeable writer. Carr writes about how he easily used to read long stretches of prose for hours without getting tired, but now he cannot concentrate after reading a couple of pages at a time (314). Carr ponders on why his attention span is getting shorter and links it to his increased use of the internet. As being a credible writer about the issues of technology and the internet, Carr feels confident that he and other people worldwide cannot concentrate on long readings due to the ease of reading on the

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Tecnogey and Us Today With in “From The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” Nicholas Carr, the author of this article, prompts us to think deeper about how exactly the technology we use so freely today is affecting us as a consumer. While in this article Mr. Carr shows that he notices and appreciates how much the internet has helped others as well as himself, as shown when he states “The Web’s been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes” (Carr par. 3), we can also gather from this article that he is extremely concerned for the very way he thinks.

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As the internet gains popularity, people have begun changing the way they read their books. Rather than reading printed copies of books, people have begun reading electronic copies of books or simply listening to audio books. While these forms of reading seem more convenient, could these new forms of reading books impact the way books are read? As explained in The Shallows: What The Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, the internet has changed the way books are read, therefore negatively impacting the way books are interpreted by making it harder for modern readers to follow story lines and truly capture main ideas as writers intended. Reading online may seem easier, but it also creates distractions that pull readers away from the story.

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Since the advent of the personal computer, the amount of information and interconnectedness between people has dramatically increased. With one click of a button someone could go from checking the scores of their favorite football team to conversing with a friend anywhere in the world. In “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr, he explores the consequences of the massive amounts of information one can obtain via the internet. While I agree with Carr on the effects the internet has on how people read, there is a limit to the amount of people the internet actually affects.

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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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The Shallows, written by Nicholas Carr is a book about technology and what it is doing to the brain as well as society. The main purpose of this piece is to give facts to the reader, mainly to explain what the internet is doing to us and the world around us. In the book, Carr does not have a bias he allows the reader to make their own decisions about the topic of technology. The Shallows is a book that goes into detail about the brain and the effects the internet and technology has on it, as well as personal experiences from Carr himself who has lived through the growing of technology. Carr explains technology through facts and personal experiences using diction, occasion, and subject.

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