Summary Of Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

In Nicholas Carr’s writing, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” mentions multiple examples of why the internet and the simplicity of looking up and getting exactly what we were looking for are causing a drop in the way we think and the intelligence of our minds. Carr explains that he was once a huge reader and could comprehend ten to fifteen-page articles easily, but the directness of the internet had dulled his brain that he could not read a few paragraphs before he gave up and his mind started drifting off into the emptiness of his brain. Carr mentions that the Net is being the universal medium causing information that is read and learned go in one ear and out the other. Carr defends his positions by adding multiple examples showing that the Net

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.

In Nicholas Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making us Stupid?”, he argues that the more humans rely on computers for understanding, the more human intelligence will fall. He starts his argument off by referencing the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Carr uses this movie to compare how the supercomputer in the movie feels his mind going and how he feels the same. He then gets into the specifics of this memory lost.

Are readers to believe that the internet decreases one’s intelligence? Nicholas Carr, a prolific writer, argues that the more people use the web the harder it is to concentrate and stay focused. Is it fair to say the internet decreases people’s intelligence just because it can be more difficult to focus? Nicholas Carr’s argument in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” could be problematic due to flawed evidence and assumptions and possibly failure to address different points of view. First of all, Carr does provide some flawed evidence.

The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” written by Nicholas Carr, arguing that Google’s easy search and result technique is causing its users to lose their ability to stay focused while reading and overall change their brains negatively. Nicholas Carr is a blog and essay writer who enjoys writing about technology and its effect on society. The publisher of this article is “The Atlantic” magazine, who are part of the market that competes with google, the source in question. Nicholas Carr when writing “Is Google Making Us Stupid” used experiences of other bloggers and semi-related historical events to argue that methods of documenting information actually have a negative effect on how we absorb and produce information. Carr begins with explaining his experience and the belief that the internet caused

The article by Nicholas Carr: “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is Doing to our brains” (2008), explains the effect that the internet has on the way people go on about their daily lives and how it influences their habits and thoughts. He uses easy and not-strictly academic words along his article to argue that people’s concentration skills have reduced because of their high use of the internet to find information. He does so with the use of literary elements such as diction, tone and poetic devices. Therefore, by using these strategies, Carr creates a homespun persona with which he transcends his message to approach his readers.

With all the information we consume in a short amount of time Carr says we are acting like computers as he puts to paper saying “as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence” (580). This one again like all the other points is very evident in my life as I see it happen in the school system itself. The school system teaches us to memorize so many things and learn as much as we possibly can in my classes today memorization is key and without it I struggle in class, so learning as much as possible seems to me to be like the role of computers and not for humans. Computers supply us with every bit of information we need and with this power comes the want to be like it, so the school system and culture in general wants us to become like computers, knowing everything that will be useful to us at any given moment and this is taking away our ability to act as humans. In a world where the internet dominates, and has manifested itself in computers and our daily lives, this may be very well be the most important point to realize because if we lose our humanity we lose our ability to be human, and walking computers would be our next

His most important point, in my opinion, is his claim that technology alters the way our brains function. Technology is a fantastic tool but if used incorrectly, could lead to health problems, reliance, or alterations to brain functions. The first point Carr presents is that technology can provide health

It’s becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV”. What Carr is telling us obviously is that he believes that most of these tools that we use on a daily basis are controlling how we live but Carr sets this up as a scare tactic to think that we are not in control when in actuality we are in control of what we do with or without our tools. In my personal experience I use these tools on a daily basis but I use them in a normal matter. For example how I use the clock is to tell time because I myself have a busy schedule to keep up with during the day. We need these tools to keep up with society and manage our time because everything in society does not revolve around us.

In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid? ” , Nicholas Carr talks about how the internet has affected the way most people process the information that they could found online. The title of the article is the most obvious clue for the argument that he is trying to make. He also points out how internet is our primary source to find the information that we are looking for, but the side effect is affecting our basic ability to read long pieces of information such as books. Google is a well-known website that allows to anyone instant access to kind of information, which can be really helpful if the user knows how to use and manipulate it.

He explains that people who use the internet more often most likely have a lack of concentration. The author points out how the human brain is constantly changing and since using the internet makes searching for information very simple and quick, over time, our brain gets used to taking in information this way. He tells us about how Google is like the Internet’s church and how their end goal is to turn the internet into an artificial intelligence. The author argues that even though the internet may be beneficial, deep reading rather than skimming over words written on the internet gives a much more different and better outcome. He explains that our intelligence will slowly but eventually be crushed and turn into artificial information.

Rhetorical Analysis on “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” In Carr’s article he writes about whether Google is making us stupid based on his and other people’s experience in the last 10 years with internet advancement to finding answers quickly. Which changed how people focus and comprehend when reading something off the internet. Making Carr feeling worried, fearful and scared on how Google is changing his brain with rhetorical choices from movie references, other people’s experiences and advancement of technology from history that changed how people learn things.

Overall, Nicholas Carr’s article succeeds in persuading his claim that Google makes people stupid in the article. His whole argument about the Internet has changed the audience way of thinking. He uses rhetorical techniques that are aimed at an audience that will believe him, people like millennials or even an older audience that knew what the internet was like before it was so common.

He first mentions that after machines finish replacing assembly line workers, it will replace blue-collar jobs like warehouse workers, truckers, janitors. He describes how machines are better workers because of their speed, strength and tireless compared to humans. Then, he explains again how machines will eventually continue to make their way into White-collar workers, doctors, lawyers and even reporters. He concluded the paragraph by saying “The robot takeover will be epic. And it has already begun.”

He starts his argument by telling us the effect the internet has had on him and others he has come across. The internet has changed his train of thought and his ability to focus and concentrate. He believes our brains have been reprogramed over time to adjust to the speed and convenience of the internet. Our ability to retain and digest traditional media has also been compromised since we are used to receiving information so rapidly. This is a strong opening argument for his essay.