Changing Our Brains In Thomas Carr's 'The Swallows'

The internet has changed the way we live our daily lives. It changed the way we socialize and has impacted the way we communicate. In the New York Times article, “Addicted to Distractions” by Tony Schwartz, it discusses how the author realized that his addiction to the internet prevented him from creating personal goals that will benefit him. For example, our author found himself one evening reading the same paragraph repetitively before concluding that he just can’t simply focus on the content of the book. This horrified the author because he once found pleasure in reading books, and now instead of reading them he finds himself spending countless hours on the internet. A large percentage of Americans are indeed addicted to the internet,

We are at a time where technology is widespread; it has become a part of our everyday life leading to advantages and disadvantages. Technology nowadays has become the most important topic to discuss and everyone has developed their own unique opinion. In Nicholas Carr’s article published in 2008, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” he argues that as technology progresses people’s mentality changes. Carr is effective in his argument by sharing his fears and personal experiences to have an effect on the audience utilizing pathos and ethos. Not only does he include his own experience, but he also includes other people’s point of views. He goes on to support his claim of how technology

Do we depend on the Internet to answer all of our questions? Nicholas Carr, an American author, wrote “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” published in 2008 in The Atlantic, and he argues about the effects of the Internet on literacy, cognition, and culture. Carr begins his argument with the ending scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Carr believes that we depend on the Internet more than just looking up the answers in the book ourselves. He is trying to prove that our generation is consumed by the Internet. In addition to this, I feel his argument is effective because he builds credibility with personal facts, using statistics, and making emotional appeals throughout the essay. He gives many details and examples to backup and support his argument.

Carr opens up his argument with his personal struggle to focus on reading the text. Unlike the past when he enjoyed reading lengthy articles easily, he acknowledges that his mind constantly drifts away from the text and that he looks for something else to do. “I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet....Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes… Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets”(Carr 348). He realizes that the increasing amount of time spending on the Internet has caused his intellectual pain. By exposing his personal experience and analyzing it, he successfully points out the issue he faces.

An emotional appeal to an audience focuses on connecting with the reader by either emitting or receiving a feeling of sympathy. Such results can be achieved through many means, one for example, is sharing a personal story experienced by the author; an experience that left the author in a state of confusion or maybe even misery. Carr uses some words and phrases, such as “a predator would take us by surprise” or “crucial to our survival” (para. 12), that are meant to emotionally appeal to the audience. In this case, the author uses these phrases in a way to differentiate between two different times instead appealing to the audience emotionally. Carr also gives insufficient information about himself and his background. The only information provided about Carr was that he was an author of other several books relating to this topic, but that solely is not enough information. This causes the audience to not think of the author as a trustworthy and reliable

59% of people aged 18 to 29 say the internet is shaping who they are. “The Veldt” and “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury are two dystopian novels where technology has become a major factor in their life, destroying them by the day. “The veldt” is based in the future, where a family is given all the modern benefits of technology, claiming to make their lives easier and more efficient. For example, the kitchen makes dinner for all the family, allowing them to engage in other fun activities. However, with every good thing, comes bad. The nursery is a simulation, where reality becomes virtual, able to recreate any environment, whether it be fictional or not. Rather than the kids going out into the wild, they would lock themselves in, relying on simulation and technology. Later on, the thought of their parents wanting to lock the nursery, lead their children to lure them into it, allowing them to get eaten alive by lions. “Fahrenheit 451” talks about a future American society, where technology has affected humanity negatively. The main character is Montag, a fireman who lives in a society where censorship is heavily used to hide the history of their country. Books are banned, and firemen burn them. Montag and his wife Mildred, a technology addict, begin to read books, slowly leading them to question the countless problems in his society. In both stories, Ray Bradbury uses tone and literary devices to show how an overdependence on technology as well as a disconnection from the

In the present global world, we are living in the era of advanced technology like computes, smart phones, TV and so on; and I love that. As early day goes by technology is changed. Technology makes things happen so faster. In the article, “Meet your iBrain,” the authors Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan talk about the current explosion of digital technology and how is changing the way we lives, how we communicate, and it is also rapidly and profoundly altering our brains. “Our brain is evolving right now at a speed like never before” Gary and Gigi. In “Defense of Technology” Andrew O’Hagan talks about how technology is making life get better as time goes by, technology is improvement and improvement like never before. Every part of our daily life

Nicolas Carr, an author and researcher, insinuates that people who use computers and the internet are becoming more shallow human beings and that this technological tool, despite its advantages that are applauded by many, is harming society as a whole. Carr has discussed these thoughts in his book The Shallows, on television in an interview with Stephen Colbert, and in an article in The Atlantic entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” While Carr believes that the internet has its place and that it has been extremely helpful to him as a researcher and writer, he also believes that the internet encourages multitasking and boosts superficiality. I share these same thoughts with Carr. While the internet has been extremely helpful in producing a more efficient and fast-paced environment, it has at the same time produced challenges and weaknesses in our society, like multitasking and frivolity.

In today’s society, technology plays a very important role in its ability to function, it helps people find information, communicate with others far away and provides entertainment. In “Fahrenheit 451”, a book written by Ray Bradbury, a dystopian future where books have been made illegal is presented. In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, raises many questions about technology and its effects on society. It’s quite evident that we have become quite dependent on technology due to our overconsumption of it.

Carr explains to us that the internet is a tool used every single day in today’s society, but also makes most of us complacent with the ease of having the world at our fingertips. He starts his argument by telling us the effect the internet has had on him and others he has come across. The internet has changed his train of thought and his ability to focus and concentrate. He believes our brains have been reprogramed over time to adjust to the speed and convenience of the internet. Our ability to retain and digest traditional media has also been compromised since we are used to receiving information so rapidly. This is a strong opening argument for his essay.

The internet could be the most valuable invention that was made in the modern age. With the force of the web individuals basically can do anything. From learning how to cook to building a car. The possibility is endless. The modernization of the internet can have positive and negative effects on the world. The modernization of the web can have positive and negative consequences on the world. It is sure in light of the fact that it gives everyone the power to access any information, that they need in second. In any case, it is contrary since individuals start to get limited focus and just focus on the things they need to see as opposed to seeing the full picture.

Nowadays, the internet is the biggest marketing and media tool that people can use today. It can have various effects on people’s daily life ranging from bad to beneficial. In the essay “Is Google making us stupid” by Nicholas Carr writes about how internet usage in the 21st century is changing people’s reading habit and a cognitive concentration. Particularly, he emphasizes on Google’s role in this matter and its consequences on making people machine like. Carr also stated that the online reading largely contributes to people’s way of reading a book. He is extremely focused on the online reading’s distraction that most affects people’s mind.

Nicholas Carr in The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (2010) asserts that, “With the exception of alphabets and number systems, the net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use. At the very least, it’s the most powerful that has come along since the book.” (Carr, 2010, Pg. 108) Carr explains this quote throughout the entire book. He continues by adding real world examples and data from other studies. From all of the information that is gathered for this book, he creates the idea that internet has drastically changed culture and brought forward new ways of thinking that will exist for many years to come. Niholas Carr concludes that the way the net has changed thinking reduces how people can concentrate on a single piece of information, but enhances the fact that people can take in vast amounts of data.

In only a couple of decades, technology has imbedded itself into people’s lives, to the point it would be difficult to live without using technology. In Neil Postman’s speech “Informing Ourselves to Death,” he explains how not all technology is being used for what its original purpose was, and how people are starting to drown in the useless information technology gives. Postman also makes the claim, “And therefore, in a sense, we are more naïve than those in the Middle Ages, and more frightened, for we can be made to believe almost anything” (5). Though Postman gave this speech about thirty years ago, this accurately describes modern society. Technology was meant to help people learn and improve their lives, but it has instead increased the naivety of the world. Technology has made people dependent on it, gullible, and lose verbal skills, which has led to a naïve world.

Internet is developing day to day. Internet and networks are binding us in new ways. As Rheingold argues, “There is a huge social issue at work in digital literacy, one that goes beyond personal authority. Every intercourse creates new association in a child’s brain, every email, tweet, search, or post is contributing and nourishing connections in our global brain, changing the shape of the Internet that we billions of people are progressing together. Young child brain or an internet brain both are always trying to make connections. Internet is changing our lifestyle which includes work, producing and consuming. The creative potential release by digital technologies is also boosting questions about rules and ethics, as well as social benefits