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Is google making us stupid analysis essay

“ Is Google Making Us Stupid” In “ Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr discusses over the question about the cause and effect of how Internet impacts our thinking, reading, writing habits, and how our brains react to adapt to the “ new-media rule”. The author uses many specific examples and statistics to demonstrate his point of view. Throughout the first part of the article, Nicholas Carr argues whether our reading and writing habits may be affected by the search engines on Google. We used to cogitate and analyze over and over before coming up with a verdict.

Nowadays, within one minute searching with the Google toolbars, the great databases of the Internet will immediately bring the information to us. Besides, the printed books became the past thanks to the e-book and other online works on the Internet. Writing becomes a real challenge even to a writer since we spend too much time on the media. The author strictly criticizes the Google and its high-technology toolbars because he really worries about the day humans will become more “ machinelike” and no one even realizes that.

Since the issue that Nicholas Carr brings up is very significant, he uses very meticulous instances to illustrate his way of thinking. The statistics used in this article are carefully checked and very specific. From the beginning, Nicholas Carr starts with various conspicuous examples to gain readers attention. Then, he uses his logical discussion to prove that Google is making our lives more “ machinelike” and lazier. In his article, Carr talks about the changes in his attention span since he began using the internet more.

Carr describes this change by saying, “ Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski. ” Carr uses many examples to support his argument which will be discussed in this paper. Carr claims the web has been a godsend to him by eliminating the days spent in periodical rooms of libraries. This same research can now be done in minutes, thanks to the internet. Because of this, his mind now expects to take in information in a swift moving stream of particles the way the internet distributes it (Carr, 2008).

Close friends of Carr’s also claim the more they use the web the harder it is to stay focused on long pieces of writing (Carr, 2008). The author notes that these anecdotes do not prove that the Web has had a negative effect on the mind and long-term studies have not yet been done. A recent study at University College London, however, suggests there may be some basis to this view. Its five-year study of online reading habits confirms the skimming aspect as users of an online library moved between sources quickly (fewer than two pages) and rarely returned to any source already visited.

Long articles were occasionally saved (Carr, 2008). The study notes that readers “ power browse” looking for relevant material out of the abundance of material available. The author notes that the amount of text on the Internet and the popularity of texting on cell phones may mean we are reading more today than before when television was the medium of choice. But it is a different kind of reading which fosters a new sense of self (Carr, 2008). 1 In his article, Carr, points out the fact these technological advancements make life much easier through easy access of information.

However, the Internet does not have all the information even though most of it is found there. In addition, people should not base the truth that is used in most of the situations on such sources. Because the Internet has led to people ignoring the pre-existing information along that would be found manually just because it can be found on the Internet. One of the main arguments that have been depicted by Carr in this essay is that information has slowly been systemized through such inventions and this has dehumanized it.

This implies that unlike in past days, when humans had to look for information and transfer it manually. Things have now changed, in which these systemized search engines provide everything one needs through a single click. This information will eventually be applied in other situations without any further attempts to try to find if the information given is actually genuine or one’s fabrication. Hence Google has been able to give all the information that one may require except the truth.

Truth in past days was self-created after a labored effort of trying to find out how it came about through work that is done by the human mind and decisions made that are based on this effort. In Nicholas Carr’s essay, “ Is Google Making us Stupid? ,” he claims that how our mind processes information depends on the training. People are losing concentration easier than before and instead of truly reading material, they are skimming and mentally noting what appears to be important. On the internet, which much of our time is spent, we often skim to get the information we need then move onto the next thing.

He explains the effects the internet has on its users by saying, “ The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive. ” Carr uses this comparison to explain that the internet has trained out brains to skim and collect more information. There is so much information available that it would seem that if the brain was a computer that the brain would in fact need a larger hard drive to store all of the information. With that, companies use the internet to advertise and our attention is fought for.

According to Carr this is done on purpose to help advertisers make money. “ The last thing that companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction,” he explains. By causing our minds to be distracted, when they do get the attention they strive for, we are more likely to in turn buy the product. We sift for information rather than rationality when so many things are available to view. This means money for companies. It is becoming so we cannot help the way that our brain works.

It is being trained to think as it does with the internet as popular tool; those who use it, use it often. Ultimately, the argument made by Carr in his article is that as the internet becomes our primary source of information, it becomes more difficult to read books and other long pieces of writing. This process of rewiring our brains carries the danger of flattening human experience even as it offers the benefits of knowledge efficiency and immediacy. The internet has become the universal medium to access information.

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