Summary of “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr Nicholas Carr argues in, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” that the internet is changing the way we think. The internet looks to be slowly taking away the ability to focus very long, and is becoming the most widely used medium for information. Carr has the feeling that he no longer thinks like he used to. Reading a long book or article is no longer enjoyable to him. He attributes this feeling to the extensive use of the internet and computers, even though this usage of the internet has been to help him write.
Carter Campbell Mr. Abedinifard ENG 102 (AS25) 31 Oct 2014 In his essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, published in The Atlantic, Nicolas Carr expresses his opinions on the effect the internet has on people’s attentions spans and their intelligence. Carr talks about how reading lengthy articles has become more challenging for him as his internet usage increases. “Immersing myself in a book or article used to be easy. That’s rarely the case anymore” (92). Not only does Carr believe this but states others, including friends and colleagues are also experiencing this affect.
When Carr asks the question is google making us stupid, he may have set an alarm for many. In the story he gets deep explanation of how the internet influences the brain. The explanation he gives us is how computers have altered the way we work, how we organize information, share news, communicate, and how we search for, read, and absorb information. Carr's analysis incorporates research, as well as philosophy, science, history, and cultural developments. He investigates how the media and tools we use shape the development of our thinking and considers how we relate to and think about our brains.
Josh Haning Mr. Rogers English Final 05/31/2011 Us Stupid Google Making Is As times change, so must our methods of dealing with them. The evolution of media has changed the way we absorb information from writing to radio to television and so on. During these trans-formative periods, skills are lost and skills are gained; but to label the internet as the catalyst for the degeneration of our intelligence goes a bit too far. In his article ”Is Google Making Us Stupid” Nicholas Carr argues that, in its current form, the internet is not conducive to the kind of deep thought required when reading a long article or novel. He feels that while the internet is extremely useful, it is designed to distract as opposed to focus the mind.
Carr thinks that this is bullshit. They underestimate the qualities of our human brain. Of course, it’s true that because of Google, we have more time to daydream, but we don’t do it because our brain is to busy processing all the vibes we got from using Google. Recent research expelled that daydreaming (short periods of psychic suspence) can give you a lot of creativity. They give you new ways of thinking, associating and ideas.
If we lie all the time we will start to have a brain that is tailor made to make lying easier (Neulieb). It is evidence like this that has made people ask the question of what role the internet may have in changing the way our brain works. One of these questions that has been brought up a lot recently is how it is effecting the way we are learning things. The internet has taken the place of books for the most part because the internet is such a powerful tool that most people who are in school have access to. With all this access to information at an extremely fast rate books have become something that people look past because it seems too time consuming in the fast pace world we live in.
Eventually will we rely on artificial intelligence for everything? Carr's point is that we already rely on it so much that we need to go back to traditional reading. Carr makes a concession that using google and artificial intelligence is useful because we systemize information and make it much easier to access and understand than traditional reading. It is important to his argument
Carr does this to show just how big of an impact that the internet has not only on the literary society, but society as a whole. This essay is primarily a convincing essay, in that Carr is attempting to explain why Google is creating an attention-deficit society. He states that, “Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy.”(603) Nicholas then goes on to mention how his concentration starts to wonder after reading two to three pages. The intimate relationship between the reader and the text is lost. Carr feels as though he has to constantly find his way back to the original text because of distractions.
The Internet is a technology that changed the way we read. The Internet causes us to loose focus or to just skim through information really quickly. The need to get information quickly, rather than spending the time to read a book, is due to the Internet. When I need to read something for a class I would much rather go to Spark Notes on the Internet, rather than read a complete book. The Internet has helped reading to evolve.
Nicholas Carr and Clay Sharkey debate whether or not the internet is actually making us smarter or dumber. “Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives- or exerted such broad influences over our thoughts, as the internet does today. “that is one of Carr’s viewpoints. Shirkey believes that “every increase in paperback book to you tube, alarms people accustomed to the restrictions of the old system, convincing them that the new media will make young people stupid. This fear dates back to at least the invention of movable type.” I tend to agree more with Sharkey because there are a lot of learning toold we can gain from the web.