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Nicholas Carr's 'Is Google Making USupid'

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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 …show more content…
Nicholas Carr discusses some of these issues that he has faced in his personal experience. He starts off 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 3).” Carr uses this metaphor to help give a visual how he used to spend lots of times getting into research, and now he can just get answers in a quick minute. As a result of this, it has caused other problems for him. The attention span for reading a book now for Carr is much less than it used to be. He feels this is due to the fact that most the time when he wants information he can get it very easy. Now trying to ready a book or long article, he finds himself clicking on other links, mind wandering, and other things that he can instead of driving into the text. In addition to not diving in then we arise the problem if the information is correct or credible. Due to the quick ease of searching for a topic or piece of text, it makes it easier to include false information. We are conditioned that the information on the internet is correct, so if it pops up toward the beginning of the search it much be correct right? Unfortunately not, there are many people who generate false information on the internet. Also it may be the correct information, but it is altered to say what they want you to believe which can create a bias opinion. Bringing it back to not diving into the research …show more content…
As a result of Google, it has conditioned us that as soon as we need information for a research or topic to go straight to Google. Again, this can cause problems because of digging deeper into the topic, on average we take the first bit of information that is found and think that it is correct. Even though the information may be correct, the problem with this is that we do not get a well rounded background on the topic. Not learning enough about the topic can be hindering to our academic work because we are not as educated to speak. Having an argument that you can only provide little facts to from lack of learning can make you not look as smart. The more you know about the topic the better you can go into detail either in conversation or in a textual piece, which then will make it more credible, more appealing, and make it to where the reader is more interested. This is all tied back to the “Google Effect” and how it is making us

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