Is Google Making Us Stupid Analysis

1000 Words4 Pages
Google, a revolutionary search engine that has altered the way the world surfs the internet and accesses it's many other pleasantries has been thee "go-to" search engine for nearly a decade. It's popularity has even gained itself an entry into the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb. So why is it that Nicholas Carr, a successful writer and blogger, finds it necessary to publish an article entitled: "Is Google Making Us Stupid?". The article is a direct attack at not only Google itself, but the internet and technology as a whole. Carr argues, in reference to Stanley Kubrick's: 2001: A Space Odyssey, "as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence." (Carr, 2008, p.1). Carr believes that the constant need the human race has shown for such technology, will end up stripping humans of their humanity. The article fights to explain how the days of old are being tainted by these new technological advancements and how in the end, humanity will become "artificial". The article starts by explaining the effects that technology has had on both Carr and his close friends. His friends, which he explains to be along the lines of "literary" types of people, have experienced many troubles indulging themselves into books and articles as well as they had in the past. Carr mentions how they are unable to focus on long pieces of writing and how they must fight in order to finish. He also names two bloggers experiencing the same issue; Scott Karp and Bruce Friedman. Although both bloggers blog on different topics, they had both described themselves as readers, and, through the invention of blogs and the internet, find it much harder to sit down and read through a three page article. Using two different writers and avid readers was a very strong way for Carr to build credibility in his article.
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