Is Google Making Us Stupid? 9/30/2012 ENG140 Introduction to Writing Kanesha Howard In Nicholas Carr’s story “Is Google Making Us Stupid” his main point is the question, is quick access to the internet making humans more impatient to read and want to skim through stuff more. This story is a very well informative story. Carr uses google as a metaphor for the wider internet. When Carr asks the question is google making us stupid, he may have set an alarm for many.
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.
Not only does Carr believe this but states others, including friends and colleagues are also experiencing this affect. Carr’s goal is to push readers to think more critically about the negative impact internet usage can have on one’s ability to read and articulate articles. Although Carr provides some anecdotal evidence it is not sufficient evidence to prove that Google is making us stupid. In completing a critical analysis of Carr’s essay I will examine both the weaknesses and strengths of his argument and provide research and literature to support my belief that Google is not in fact making us stupid. Carr begins his essay by saying “I’ve had the uncomfortable feeling that over the past few years someone, or something has been tinkering with [his] brain”(91).
What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains: Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr Thesis: As the Internet becomes our primary source of information, it is affecting our ability to read books and other long narratives. This process of rewiring our brains carries the danger of flattening human experience even as it offers the benefits of knowledge efficiency and immediacy. 1) The author begins the article with a description of the closing scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey when Dave dismantles the memory circuits of Hal, the artificial brain that controls the space ship. 2) The author feels that someone has been tinkering with his brain, making it change.
Internet Impact on Society In “Hal and Me” written by Nicholas Carr, Carr discusses how the Internet is impacting each individual that is using the Internet. Carr took his own intellectual journey in 2007 and realized he was experiencing difficulty in focusing on his work. His main concern was the difficulty he was having particularly on careful and concentrated reading, thinking about that reading, and writing carefully about it. Carr made a conclusion that the Internet itself was impacting his ability to concentrate and something had to change. In “Hal and Me”, Carr uses examples and personal experiences to relate to the positive and negative impacts the Web has on society in general.
Science fiction is a genre that explores human responses to changes in science and technology. Science fiction typically utilises innovative technology to make a significant social comment and out the present by posing questions about human nature and actions. ‘I, Robot’, directed by Alex Proyas, is a film set in Chicago 2035 where technology has advanced to enable the integration of robots into society. Proyas presents a powerful social comment through Del Spooner and his investigation into the death of the founder of robots, Dr Alfred Lanning. The plot forces the audience to question whether humans can control the technology they create and if our desire to continually make advancements in technology might be to humanity’s detriment.
Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” - A Rhetorical Analysis Nicholas Carr starts this very well written article with a rather emotional scene from the 2001 blockbuster movie – A Space Odyssey. In the scene, the main character of the movie; an astronaut named Dave disconnects the memory circuit that controls the artificial brain of the supercomputer HAL which via a malfunction nearly sent Dave to his death. He then goes over to liken that scenario ironically to what he believes the internet is doing to his brain. His central claim simply put is that the internet is adversely affecting his thinking. He says that as a writer, he has ceased to go deep into the sea of words like a scuba diver but now rather skims through various texts on the internet propelled by hyperlinks just like a guy on a jet ski.
Though the Internet is the main subject of his argument, Carr provides insight on other developments as well. By touching on the inventions of such inventions as the map and the clock, he explains that both “changed the way we saw ourselves and the way we thought” (55) and provides example of his idea that the modernization of technology changes our thought process. He illustrates through historical references, the progression of how we read and write. Such examples include: writing on stones and wood, upgraded to papyrus, to tablets, to paper, to typewriters, to computers. Growing up in a time that was predominately print rather than computer, Carr is quick to favor print reading.
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.
Nina ends her article with three cases of cyberbullying causing the victim to commit suicide. The second text is an article written by a cyber-bully called Aleks Krotoski. Actually he was not as much of a cyber-bully as he was a teenager who enjoyed being antisocial on the internet. At least we are given to understand that not actually hate on someone because any racial or religious reasons. Either way he tells the story of how he discovered the internet and how he could simply hide behind his digital mask and saying things he probably wouldn’t have said if he was confronted with these people in real life.