Analysis of Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google making us stupid?”

Analysis of Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google making us stupid?”

Introduction

The article by Nicholas Carr “Is Google making us stupid” published by The Atlantic brought a lot of controversies on the use of the internet as a major source of information in today’s world. Carr categorically explains his experiences as a profound writer and how he currently faces various challenges in reading. Even though the heading mentions Google, this essay generally involves all the internet sources. Apart from having a backing from other scholars who have experience difficulty in learning, the essay also mentions some research studies such as that conducted in the University College London that provided important information. The following is an analysis of the Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google making us stupid?”

Claims of the essay

Internet reduces a person’s concentration level

Nicholas Carr argues that the internet interferes with a person’s concentration levels in many ways. The access to a wide variety of information at the same time limits a person’s ability to focus on a specific task. This, according to Nicholas Carr, results in the rewiring of the brain’s functioning thus people less attentive in their reading skills. For this reason, individual would prefer the use of short straight forwards messages as opposed to lengthy work.

Affects creativity and critical thinking

The innate ability of human beings to be creative and imaginative is reduced by the constant use of the internet. In Carr’s essay, the availability of all the information in the internet leaves no room for imagination and thinking. Thus, individuals always opt to access the readily available information as opposed to subjecting their minds into reasoning out new ideas.

Support and warrants of the claims

Nicholas Carr admits that he finds it hard to concentrate in reading a printed novel due to reduced concentration levels. This is also echoed by other bloggers and writers such as Scott Karp, Bruce Friedman and Marshall McLuhan. Friedman further admits that he has lost his ability to read long articles in pathology.  For this reason, Nicholas Carr describes himself as “a Scuba diver who has opted for Jet skiing because it is less involving” (Carr, 1).

The internet; especially Google, has contributed to lack of concentration in the online readers. This is because their pages are usually filled with advertisements and notifications which tend to destruct the readers. Also, since the Company makes profits by the number of pages and advertisements viewed; Carr found out that their pages are designed to sieve out important words that hence providing a reader with a few selected sentences before redirecting them to the original page. This promotes shallow reading as the readers would only view the selected information which lack detailed backing.

Moreover, the internet has contributed to reduced creativity and originality in the young generation. Nowadays, students in various institutions would rather access information directly from the internet as opposed to carrying out lengthy research using published works. This contributes to illiteracy as students sometimes copy information directly from the internet without caring to understand. Also, the continuous use of the internet discourages the creation of new ideas by being imaginative because all the information can be accessed by searching in Google.

Rebuttals in the essay

In the essay “Is Google making us stupid?” Nicholas Carr counter-argues several issues as follows:-

Refutation

Carr practically uses the technique of refutation by practically attacking the idea that technology is good. He puts out his arguments in a systematic manner by use of various personal experiences and also other examples in the society. In order to solidify his actual argument, he incorporates the ideologies of prominent people such as Socrates thus disapproving the notion that use of technology promotes intelligence.

Strategic concession

This rebuttal technique has been widely used by Nicholas Carr in his essay. It involves partially agreeing with the well known ideology while at the same time finding fault in it. In the essay, Carr to some extent agree that the internet saves a lot of time in finding information and it is also easier to read through articles in it. However, he further concludes by claiming that such reading habits reduce one’s intellectual ability.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the article by Nicholas Carr “Is Google making us stupid?” is a starting point in the consideration of the use of technology in our modern day world. Carr was able to show that indeed the internet reduced the creativity and concentration levels of its users. In order to fully present his argument, he used various rebuttal techniques such as refutation and strategic concession. The use of the internet should therefore be curbed to avoid the negative effects associated with it.

Works cited

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"  The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008:  Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/ . on 23^rd September 2013.