Are We in a Race Against the Machine?
In the text, Is Google Making Us Stupid by Nicholas Carr, the author tries to describe how the internet has become the learners’ primary information source and has started to affect the individual ability to read books and other lengthy pieces of information. Carr’s case about the use of technology is clear facts from real people. Nicholas Carr, in his text, Is Google Making Us Stupid, poses a question about whether the Internet has made people more ‘artificial’ and dispersed in their thinking approach. The most shared search engine renown as Google has allowed the learners to discover information instantly, whereas skipping the critical process of understanding the reading concept by applying some pathos, logos, and ethos in the text.
In the article, Is Google Making Us Stupid, Nicholas Carr analyzes the influences of excessive internet usage in learning, where he argues that individuals are capable of understanding a lot of new things simultaneously through internet usage. Nevertheless, this aspect lacks a positive perspective on human thinking capacity. In supporting his argument, the author uses pathos in the text when he says, “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 through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore…I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle” (Carr para. 2). Here, the author provokes the reader with emotions by depicting how his reading concentration has been limited to a few pages of a book, contrary to the past, and he is now struggling to read just because of the introduction of search engines such as Google.
The author further uses ethos to depict how the internet had adversely influenced the reading capacity. For instance, Carr (para. 3) writes, “it is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed, there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages, and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.” The author here further is credible with his information by offering reliable information on how internet technology is ever-changing and attracting more users. They tend to avoid the usual traditional way of reading.
Further, the author attempts to use logos while driving his argument about how the internet is hindering the traditional but significant reading skills. Carr (para 38) affirms that “in the world of 2001, people have become so machinelike that the most human character turns out to be a machine. That’s the essence of Kubrick’s dark prophecy. As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.” Here, the reader can see how the author is logical in his point of view by quoting the moment when the internet has started to bring change in the world of learning. Human intelligence has somewhat become an artificial one due to over usage of internet in education and even in research work.
Ultimately, Carr successfully convinces the reader to understand the adverse effects of excessive use of the internet. The author sends a warning to the public regarding how the structure of the incredibly articulate and educated personality constructed with an exclusive version of the whole West heritage. But now the public should be on the ground to observe how the replacement of intricate inner knowledge with the new sort of self-evolving under the information overload pressure and the “instantly available technology.
Work Cited
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google making us stupid?.” Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 107.2 (2008): 89-94.