Today, the internet is one of the most powerful tools throughout the world. In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in the magazine The Atlantic, the author, Nicholas Carr, recounts his complications with concentration while reading extended articles and books. He claims these difficulties may be caused by an increased time on the internet. He thinks it changes the way we think and it is affecting our brain. People are losing concentration easier than before internet was created.
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.
His primary arguments seemed to be examples of his own difficulties. He states “Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy…That’s rarely the case anymore.” He continues to write of how his mind starts to wander after a few pages, and he looks for something else to do; reading has become a struggle. Carr says the culprit is the Internet itself, basing his accusation on how in today’s society we can obtain information after just a few minutes on the Net. The media today has started to give us information in as limited amount of words they can allow, so we as users can skim the information we desire then move onto the next sliver of info. He believes our minds have been altered to expect all information the way the Net hands it out: “in a swiftly stream of moving particles,” as he put it.
I’m not thinking the way that I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through the long stretches of prose (p. 67).’’ It’s an agreeable statement because there are times when you are trying to concentrate on reading an article on the computer and you get distracted from what you are reading. Opening up a new hardcover book is almost impossible for me.
Faber’s Knowledge Books are something everyone takes advantage of, nobody knows how important they are until they’re gone. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 Montag goes to Faber to seek advice about the books. He finds out Faber’s beliefs in book’s purpose, quality, and the leisure of people. Faber also believes that fear of the truth in books drove people away, and now without the books there is only chaos. When Faber told Montag what the purpose of books were, he spoke, “Books are a receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget,” so without them everything would slowly be forgotten (83).
The author admits that when goggling, he would sometimes, “sneak into other pages because of some attractive features or because of curiosity and forget about his work.” However, his opinion is baseless as internet - Google in specific - will actually sharpen the society’s knowledge and expound their level of thinking (Carr 533-541). The article also refers to Plato’s “Phaedrus,” part of the section that opens up counter-argument. It reminds us that various technological changes stretch far back–and that
The invention of the phonetic alphabet caused writers to start using rules while writing. According to Carr, “The advances in book technology changed the personal experience of reading and writing” (Carr66). A map is something we don’t think of as being a technology. Reading a map caused us to have a more abstract mind. The Internet is a technology that changed the way we read.
Is Google really making us stupid? Nicholas Carr, a technology writer poses that question about the internet and asks readers to give it some thought. He makes suggestions that the internet is changing the way our mind works and that it has negative consequences on the mind. Carr believes that we should be skeptical of the internet because of the adverse ways it may be shaping the way we think. Thinking critically about his article, I can find some patterns in his writing, such as fact and fiction, presenting evidence with an argument, cause and effect, and tonal qualities.
He says that 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 crushing human experience. The author uses many specific examples and statistics to demonstrate his point of view. Carr argues whether our reading and writing habits may be affected by the search engines on Google. He explains how people are on a disadvantage when they rely on e-books rather than books.
They can choose to engage in deep thinking activities. Too much of anything is not good for any one, and this also applies to internet usage. Scholars say that the price of technology is alienation and that this indicates that the more distracted an individual becomes, the less able they are to experience human emotions such as empathy and compassion. It is still too early to tell what the results of the future effects of the internet, but as Carr states, “An intellectual technology exerts its influence by shifting the emphasis of our thought. As the brain adapts to the new medium, the most profound changes will take place over several generations’