...reactions. These advancements are what have led to the invention of Google. Google, which is an information site, has made academic life very easy. It is now easier to access information of different times within a short period. However, the effect of Google has led to a lot of controversies. Is Google really making us stupid or clever. This question requires a lot of insight and analysis in order to answer it. Some people say that Google makes us to be stupid while others are of the contrasting idea. Each side has given substantial evidence supporting their idea. Nevertheless, Google is of much benefit rather than making us stupid. Some professions argue that it has its own disadvantages and hence makes us stupid. One of this is that Google makes people lazy and hence stupid. Google provides all the required information to people and thus an individual is only required to press and find the answer (Sparrow et al, 2011). This is seen to...
Words: 1438 - Pages: 6
...Is Google Making Us Stupid? This article has a very strong grasp on effective writing, in order to explain, you have to understand what effective writing is. What is effective writing? In simple words, effective writing is a piece or writing that immediately involves the reader’s interest and carries the reader through to the final paragraph with no loss of concentration. Some may call it a narrative hook, designed to catch a reader’s attention with a great title but, as the reader reads on they come to find themselves lost having no understanding of what they have just read. As I sat down to write this review I had to make sure the document followed certain guidelines. Is the document able to achieve the purpose it’s intended for and, is the document able to get it across effectively? Is Google Making Us Stupid? At the beginning of the article, the writer uses a very catchy hook to draw the reader. When you ask a question with such great magnitude the reader has a hard time not to investigate. The article then goes on to talk about how technology has changed how we process information and, how we stop using our brains and traded it in for a computer. Technology today is far more advanced than it has been in the last 20 years and it will continue to advance further more in the following years. When reading this I began to question myself, is technology making me stupid? Looking over the past years at how much things have changed, I am inclined to agree that technology...
Words: 838 - Pages: 4
...Analysis, Response “A Google, Google, Google, Google World” McCracken, Harry. "A Google, Google, Google, Google World." PC World Communications, Inc. 28.8 (2005): 17-18. Print. “A Google, Google, Google, Google World” by Harry McCracken, in PC World is an article that touches on the uses of Google as a search engine. McCracken states in his article Google’s slogan "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful”. But he goes on to mention that Google now, more than ever seems to be taking the far-reaching implications of those words quite literally. The article talks about all of the incoming innovations that are being created through Google such as the Picasa Pictures, Gmail, Google Print and...
Words: 1227 - Pages: 5
...Essay 1: “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” summary and response Summary: In the article of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet is changing the way our mind works and has some negative effects on our lives. In the article of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet is changing the way our mind works and has some negative effects on our lives. The article begins with that the Internet is the excellent resource where we can find whatever we want for everything, and we are becoming more and more dependent on it in the field of writing, reading and so on. Afterwards, Carr claims that it has a large distraction on our mind, and we even cannot concentrate on a long reading material. As he said, technology is becoming more important than people. In the end, he also tells us that Google is trying to invent an artificial brain to replace our "slow" brains that we already have. In the article of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet is changing the way our mind works and has some negative effects on our lives. He views the idea that the Internet is an obstacle for individuals to think deeply, and it is rebuilding our mind and memory. As Carr said, nowadays, it is so difficult for him to focus on a long paper; instead, he always spends a lot of time on the Internet. In the past, the writers like him should stay in the library to study for several days, but now, because of the Internet, it just...
Words: 879 - Pages: 4
...Velton Moore Dr. Minton ENGL 1101/ F October 7, 2014 Google May Just Be Making Us Stupid The ability to perform research in just about every aspect of society. Thanks to modern technology a great deal of this research is readily available and right at our fingertips. In the world today many people have begun to rely on google as a primary means of finding this information. Because of this, it is thought that google may be “Making Us Stupid”. The article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr provides a quite reasonable argument to support this idea. “My mind isn’t going-so far as I can tell-but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” (24), is a statement made by car concerning the effects of the internet on his own brain. This is to imply that due to abundant use of the internet for research purposes, it had started to have subtle effects on his thought process. The area he most noticed this change was in his ability to focus when reading. This was attributed the fact that as a writer, he used the internet quite frequently and abundantly for research. Before the internet came to be his saving grace, he would have had to rely on the archaic relics known as books and other forms of media to perform his research. Just due to the nature of this beast, it sometimes required hours of grueling page turning, which in addition to expanding one’s mind can also cause paper cuts. According to Carr, He is not the only one suffering...
Words: 996 - Pages: 4
...In today’s world, the usage of technology and internet is significantly increasing in our daily life compared to the nineteenth century. That’s because technologies and internet are extremely functional for us. Among those, search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo are especially popular among computer users. However, some critics believe that these websites are making us stupid. Among those critics, Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” focuses on how Google is making us lose concentration. On the other hand, computer users like me, writer Zimmer in “How Google Is Making Us Smarter,” and author Chamorro-Premuzic in “Is Technology Making Us Stupid (and Smarter)?” think otherwise. I believe that website such as Google is making us smarter by providing information in a quick way. Carr (2016) argued that our generation relied too much on technology, and as a result, our brains are starting to think like computers. He made a statement by saying, “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (Carr, 2016, p.737). That’s what his friends respond when he asked his friends what they feel after browsing the web for so long and reading a long pieces of writing. As a result, they felt bored and...
Words: 799 - Pages: 4
...Is Google Making Us Stupid? As the human race moves into an age of advanced technology, we have been deeply involved with technological investigations as well as research. Google is a search engine the majority of people look toward for further knowledge to enhance our familiarity with a particular focus. In the passage written by Nicholas Carr entitled, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he explains how the placement of Google in today’s society has transformed the way we progressed and the setbacks that also transpired. A growing debate is very much prospering as to whether or not his statements are correct or incorrect about the accumulated inanity. In modern day civilization, Google may delay the process of thinking, versus it improving the time it takes for us to find the research. Furthermore, we are relying upon the internet as our main resource for many things such as increasing work efficiency, reading and writing. Lastly, the internet and other advanced technology devices are becoming part of our everyday lives which causes distractions. Although Google is an astonishing tool for resources as well as speedy research, is it taking away from our true knowledge? Carr makes a great point when he states that he does not have the same thought process as he once did. ”My mind isn’t going- so far I can tell but it’s changing. I’m nothing thinking the way I used to think.” He explains how the internet changed the way he views things. As our generation become adapted more and...
Words: 679 - Pages: 3
...talk about how the internet is making people stupid. However, in article C, written by Peter Norvig, it talks about how the internet is actually making us smarter. In my opinion, the internet is making us stupid because we get distracted very easily and people aren’t actually using their full ability to think deeply. First of all, we are going to talk about how the internet is distracting us from doing other things. For instance, in the text it states, “If we’re distracted, we understand less, remember less, and learn less.” This quote is showing us that we retain less information if we are getting distracted. Also, article B states that, “The Net bombards us with messages and other bits of data, and every one of those interruptions breaks our train of thought.” The quote is showing us that with the net sending us bits of data everyday it’s causing a distraction. As you can see the internet can be a very big distraction for a great deal of people....
Words: 453 - Pages: 2
...Is Google making us stupid? Nicholas Carr doesn’t believe so, In his essay Is Google Making Us Stupid? From his article in the Atlantic magazine in 2008, he explains that Google does not make people stupid. Although he does go through and explain how Google has effects on an individual via personal anecdotes, historical references, and current studies. Biggest idea is that Carr wanted to present is that Google hasn’t made humans smarter or dumber, they have just become more dependent on the internet which has consequences. Personal anecdotes helped make Carr’s point relatable to the effects of Google. He went on and told many stories. One in particular to focus on is how his attention span has gotten shorter, “I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin...
Words: 681 - Pages: 3
...Morgan Willoughby Mr. Segars English Composition II 17 February 2014 Reaction to “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr In “Is Google Making us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr suggests that Google and the ability to quickly access information is shrinking our attention span, and changing the way we view things. He starts off by saying the Internet is a resource we can use for almost anything. However, it is damaging our ability to focus. Carr describes how he has asked many of his friends and acquaintances if they are having similar problems when it comes to reading and not being able to focus, and many of them said that they are. He says Google takes us off topic with what we are reading, because we can now scan the text for information. This article also claims that technology is a huge distraction in our lives. We are becoming too accustomed to having the Internet right at our fingertips to do everything for us. He talks about how the Internet is, in a way, becoming a brain to replace our own. Although Nicholas Carr’s theory to a point is agreeable, his overall conclusion is not. Towards the beginning of Carr’s work, he states, “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do.” Although he makes this statement, this is not true for everyone. If Internet is damaging the ability to read long, more complex passages then learn to manage time spent on the Internet. Carr sees only one side...
Words: 356 - Pages: 2
...The Wonders and Wonder Falls of the Internet After multiples readings of Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, I found that he is writing from his own person experiences as well as what he deliberates, contemplates, and gets from other significant opinions and/or research. He has a major point that he makes very clear in his text. There are also several indented points that Carr points out. I want to point out that some of the statements made by Carr went through my thoughts as it was exactly what I was having trouble with, myself. He states in the beginning of his text that he starts to notice that rather than actually reading, we begin to speed-read over text. I find his statement somewhat true being it is what I found myself doing the first time I read Carr’s text. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” clearly expresses that the internet is not only distraction to our minds but that it could be allowing us to depend upon the internet more than classic research. Carr used many examples that allowed his claim to stand tall. He referred to the watch, the television, email, the steam engine, and many other modern technologies but Google and the internet being his key points. Carr is writing this essay as persuasive but informative. “If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them with “content”, we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture.” (Carr) The text also displays sub-claims that I found to be interesting. He believes that even though...
Words: 762 - Pages: 4
...Is Google Making Us Stupid Vera Simpson ENG140 Feburary 12, 2012 Is Google Making Us Stupid In the Atlantic Magazine, Nicholas Carr wrote an article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Carr poses a good question about how the internet has affected our brain, by remapping the neural circuitry and reprogramming our memory. Carr states, "My mind isn't going-so far as I can tell-but it's changing. I'm not thinking the say way I used to think." Carr went on farther, saying that he cannot read as long as he used to, his concentration starts to wonder after two or three pages. He states, "he began to get fidgety and lose his focus and start looking for other things to do." Carr says this change is because he spend so much time on the internet, that as a writer, then he finds the Web to be very valuable to him getting information. Carr say to him and others, the internet is becoming a universal medium, that most information flows through your eyes and ears and into your mind. Wired's Clive Thompson says, "the net seems to be doing is chipping away the capacity for concentration and contemplation, that the mind now expects to take in information the internet distributes it; in a swiftly moving stream of particles." He uses for an example, "Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski." The reason he says this is because why searching the internet we tend to just skim from site to site and to never return back to the same...
Words: 1187 - Pages: 5
...Steven Pinker he writes how technology is not making us stupid, but is actually making us smarter: “ The Internet and information technologies are helping is manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e- books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid these technologies are the only thing keeping us smart.”(Pinker). The constant updates that these devices are giving us are yes, more convenient but not making us stupid. Pinker believes that the technology is very much distracting, but not if the users have some self control. Pinker said “ Distraction is not a new phenomenon. The solution is not to bemoan technology but to develop strategies of self-control, as we do with every other temptation in life. Turn off email or Twitter when you work, put away your Blackberry at dinner time, ask your spouse to call you to bed at a designated hour.” He argues that although these devices can distract us and interfere sometimes, they can easily be shut off to allow full focus. It is the users of these devices who are at fault, not technologies. In the essay, Pinker is very much disagreeing with Carr. While Carr takes the other side and argues that technology is altering the way we think in a negative way causing us to skim through things and expect the obvious answers, Pinker believes that using technologies like PowerPoint and search engines are causing us to be smarter and gain more knowledge effectively faster...
Words: 1224 - Pages: 5
...After reading the article I arrived at the conclusion that a person could allow google to make them become lazy; this laziness can result in the loss of brain cells. Consequently the person would become “stupid”. Dr. Victoria found that multiple hours of television and computers will cause certain tissues of the brain to depreciate in size and volume. The main areas of the brain affected by the excessive access to technology is the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is a part of the cerebrum; this area of the brain is responsible for problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, judgement, and social and sexual behavior. I personally believe that the deterioration of the frontal lobe has a correlation with the rate of autism in America. Today 1 in 68 children have autism, and in the year 2005 1 in 110 had autism and in the year 2000 1 in 150 had the ailment. You can see obviously see the...
Words: 941 - Pages: 4
...As technology becomes more a part or ours daily lives: We have to ask ourselves, is it hindering us or helping? This is not an easy question, and is a great debate in today's society. More specific, an article by Nicholas Carr “Is Google Making Us Stupid” argues that exact point. Throughout the article it gives many examples of how Google is hindering our knowledge. Nicholas Carr makes the reference about how he used to dive into textual evidence while researching a topic and now it feels as if he is just skimming the top information. This is later proven in a study conducted by scholars from University College London scholars from University College London Furthermore, as a result of technology they that it has altered reading habits and Carr...
Words: 1026 - Pages: 5