...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...
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...“Brain Change” In “ Mind over Mass Media” by 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...
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...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...
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...Pamela Carvalho Flavia Tamayo English 101 January 23rd 2016 The Internet is Not Dumbing Us Down Nicholas Carr, the technology writer laments the rise of the internet in our lives in his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” published in 2008. Carr compares reading on the internet with the printed version and comes into the conclusion that reading through the internet is basically the shallower form of reading. Starting his article describing his problems by describing new technologies to be “chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplacing”.(Carr 236) Because of the internet, he is unable to keep his focus on reading any books or long articles. Therefore, affirming that the long term use of the internet is harmful for concentration and contemplation, consequently affecting people to become dumber and digitals fools. Fortunately, that is not true. Internet is not making people dumb, it has rather changed the object of focus. Knowledge now is moving from one room to the hyperlink medium, from content to connections and from libraries to network. In other words, it is not wrong to say that we are in fact truly getting smarter with the increadible amount of informations available in the internet. Nicholas Carr says that from the past few years, he has been feeling an uncomfortable sense that his way of thinking when reading has changed with the excess use of the internet, claiming: “My mind now expects to take in information the ...
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...Kristyna Pavlickova WR 098 Professor Finlayson 04/05/2012 Is internet really making us better off? Comparing Diana Schaub’s “Unfriending Friendship” and Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nowadays it can be considered a general fact that the internet helps people in various ways, not only at work, but also in their personal lives. Most people see the internet and social networks as an enormous asset to their everyday life. However, according to Diana Schaub in her essay, “Unfriending friendship,” and Nicholas Carr in his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” the internet and social media also causes negative effects on our everyday life. Even though these two essays, both written around the year 2010, have different topics and there are certainly differences in the authors’ writing styles, they still have some similarities. These two essays share a similar theme: that the internet and social media diminish our human capabilities to think and make friends. Some differences occur in how Carr and Schaub approach their readers’, one author uses personal examples and the other shows differences in word meanings. In Carr’s article, he includes his own examples to show readers how the internet has changed his capability of reading longer texts; now his attention span has greatly decreased because he is used to short style of text on the internet. At the beginning of Carr’s essay there is a short part of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Oddyssey which Carr uses to...
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...Is Google making us stupid? This text is an article by Nicholas Carr. The article was posted on www.theatlantic.com the 1st of July 2008. Primarily the text deals with how the Internet has affected the human brain through the years and the consequences of the constant and raising search on the Internet. Nicholas Carr has managed to write an article in an amazing way, in where he really catches the readers’ attention, even from the first lines. In this essay my focus will be the three appeals, the structure and the audience of this article. Nicholas Carr has managed to construct this article in a very remarkable way. He introduces the essay with sentences from a movie in which a supercomputer takes control of the world. Maybe Nicholas think that that supercomputer very well could be a regular computer today because in some way the computers have taken control over the human brain through the years. He claims this because every person nowadays have either a computer with Internet or at some point have been to the Internet elsewhere. He simply thinks that people have become too lazy and if something is bothering them, they can just pick up the computer, write a few lines and “bum” there’s their answer, to what they were looking for. Simple and easy. Nicholas also manages to make a link and a fluently transition between the introduction and the main text. In the end of the introduction it says, “I can feel it. I can feel it.” And when he starts the main text it says, “I can...
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...the internet to attain knowledge, we can choose and modify the ways that we want to learn, and he does not mention any facts that Google making us stupid. Nicholas Carr states that in his article that he feels in some way that the use of Google is demeaning his learning abilities, or using the internet for our own intellectual gains is solely ones decision. There are public libraries across the nation, even at schools the libraries are open to the public. Whether we take advantage of these resources is simply one’s own fault. Even if one was to use the internet, we do not have to use Bing. There’s other websites like Bing, Yahoo, and Ask. Google is a website that is open and free for anyone to use. With Google being available to me, I have passed a multitude of tests, quizzes, and have gotten good grades on my homework. There are very few times that I have actually used a textbook to learn something. Or even if I do, I will use search engines to clarify the material that I recently covered. So claiming that “Google makes us stupid” is absurd if one can’t prove that Google is the issue. As I aforementioned, one can choose the method in which material is...
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...In “Does Continual Googling Really Make You Stupid?,” Robin Hening (2015) discusses the debate on whether Google is having an adverse effect on Millennials or rather is it improving our way of thinking. The author introduces various articles, research papers and published works to answer her question. Firstly, Hening mentions a cover story claiming that human beings are unable to think in depth as much as before. In contrast, the article states that a researcher replied to this by declaring that people are better at making complicated analyses without the need to use information that could be readily found on Google. Regardless, Hening mentions an experiment that was taken on students and when compared to previous subjects, they were the least...
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...Technology life The advancement of modern technology is making people's life more and more comfortable, and at the same time less human. To those who enjoy the benefits of technology, there is no better time to be alive than now, but to others life has been increasingly complex and stressful. In the discussions, one controversial issue has been new technological machines as computers and the Internet would be our servants forever or eventually could become our masters. On the one hand, people are so dependent on technology, and technology is very helpful for us it changes a lot with our life. On the other hand, some people believe that we should not always dependent on technology, we will little by little to forget how to write the word, and how to calculate the math or money. In the end, when people dependent on technology, the technology could control us. My own view is technology, it could be our friend or our assistant but it could not replace our behavior or control our life. With the progress and the advancement of technology to bring the convenience and utility is unmatched. Many science and technology to make people's lives more convenient, but also narrowed the distance between people. Technology brings innovations to make communication between people of the addition of many different species. In the article I Had a Nice Time with You Tonight. On the App, the author was said that: We did all of this despite living more than 3,000 miles apart, thanks to smartphone applications...
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...Lauren Klubertanz Lauren’s English 101 Portfolio ENG101 15 July 2016 Table of Contents Cover Letter p. 3-4 Self- Assessment Essay p. 5-10 College Learning Essay p. 11-17 Analyzing Arguments Essay p. 18-23 Cover Letter This midterm portfolio shows how I have progressed has a college reader and writer. Before this class I had trouble even understanding how to write a thesis and now I think I can definitely write a college level thesis. I have progressed to know how to incorporate my evidence into my concise and focused thesis statement. For example in the self assessment essay my thesis was, “Due to transferring to many schools over my first two years of college, I feel like I have had the opportunity to build up many habits of mind from Framework for Success in Post-Secondary Writing, especially in flexibility, openness and persistence but still can develop in metacognition and creativity in order to become a more successful college writer.” This showed that I could adapt a thesis to the assignment and it was focused and used my sources. At this point in the semester, a strength I have is the ability to connect source evidence with my thesis. I am able to develop my focused thesis around source-based evidence. For example in the college learning essay I was able to use my interview with my friend who was an elementary teacher to help develop my thesis about how teaching has changed due...
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...Realism in 21st Century The world, in view of the fact that it was created is changing. With the changing desires and demands of today’s standard of living, individual needs to be in sync with the demands and trends of modern day living. Not too long ago, people were seen doing stuffs that have turned out to be more of a routine in today’s humankind. Every single day a new type of technology is been introduced in today's world. So, the question arises that is theses changes necessary in today's world? If yes, does it have a good or a bad impact to the human society in today's world? We need to talk about in which approach hi-tech advancements that pace into our daily lives have altered our lifestyles in the very last few centuries. In today’s world each and every single people rely on new and advance technologies. Everyone loves new technologies and gadgets that promise innovative and better ways of living. A pace of life is frequently increasing with the increase in new technologies. Nowadays somewhat more a quarter of the earth’s population can be found in the industrialized societies. And half of the population still lives on past agriculture, but they are also relying on machines. The remaining of the world’s population, however, is no longer of either the past or the present. They live in the future, within the most important centers of cultural and technological change, in New York, California, Cambridge, London and Tokyo (Toffler, p. 38). A new part of technology...
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...most people immediately refer to search engines, like Google. The convenience and efficiency are so tempting that typing inquiries into a search bar has become second nature, especially to younger generations, partially eliminating fluid thought. As Nicholas Carr writes in his essay, Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” “Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Carr 227). Having access to a virtually infinite engine that can contain virtually infinite amounts of information has stumped human originality and manipulated reason. Google and other searching sites, although helpful, are slowly causing society to digress because they eradicate the necessity for complex thought and creative ideas. With innumerable amounts of discoveries being made daily, the need for databases is essential. Nevertheless, humans have become too dependent on them. Though technology provides valuable information that can...
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...Google is a worldly recognized corporate conglomerate that was created in 1996 by two Stamford graduates, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The transformation from just a student project to an internet tool that is used by billions is remarkable to say the least. In late 2013 it was reported that Google had 47,756 employees (www.google.com) quite a feat in itself since the starting foundation consisted of ten people. The technology world in this day and age is considered to be a dog eat dog world of competition by most. With fierce competition closing the gaps, Google did not only remain relevant but gave our world innovative products such as Google maps, Picasa, Google Earth and Gmail. After an extensive analysis within the focal area of behavior and process Google’s group environment engages in a pivotal role that has contributed to the company’s current status, and their amazing longevity. Throughout Google’s existence since 1996, there have been some mergers, and changes of command. Despite these expansive changes, the company frivolously keeps to their solid principles of the companies originators. From the ground up with a mission statement “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Google is one of the first search engines to place the customer or user first. It is no secret that advertising is what makes the web profitable; however there is a plethora of companies who place the almighty dollar first and foremost...
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...subject to many. The questions and concerns immediately surface at the thought of returning to school. “How will I afford this?” “Will I have enough time for school along with my family and working full time?” Last but not least “Who is going to teach me how to use the new technology that kids are obsessed with these days?” Technology has literally taken over the education system today. Kindergarten students have iPads provided by the school, high school and college students are turning every single homework assignment in online and students are texting and emailing their teacher and professors instead of using the telephone to call them. With the media being completely focused around technology it is easy to look at technology as a bad thing. A sly little tool to keep children quiet and distracted, keeping them from enjoying the outdoors and natural surroundings. All of that may be true, but what kind of tool is technology in the education system. Is it a helpful tool for young and adult students, or is it making us dumb? Nicholas Carr wrote an article named “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” In this article, Carr describes the way he perceives the internet. Carr speculates the idea that perhaps the internet has made him a poor reader and collects opinions from his colleagues and friends that support this idea. Carr states; “Immersing myself in a book or a 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...
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...Assisted Learning Imagine you had a computer with 10,000+ times the computing power than was necessary to put man on the moon, now imagine that computer easily fitting into your pants pocket. That is the current state of our technology. Yet even with our tremendous advancements people believe that having such easy access is detrimental to our society. I believe that the opposite is true, the Internet as a learning tool is of tremendous benefit. The Internet has an endless source of information but getting past all the headlines and top 10 lists can be a nuisance but well worth the perseverance. In 2012 author Nicholas Carr published the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in which he argues that the structure of the Internet is resulting in shallower and scattered thought. Carr argues that the amount of information available on the web is causing him to “zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski” (Carr 2). Carr believes that because information is so vast and quick to access it is rewiring his brain for decreased contemplation. While it may be true that skimming information is the easiest option, I believe that delving into a subject is just as simple. Recently I was interested in learning a programming language and was introduced to the website codeacademy.com where users can take a free guided online class to learn the basics of a language. I finished the class and had a much better understanding of coding than I had prior. But I realized that what I learned was just...
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