Is Google Making USupid By Nicholas Carr

Technological advancements are capable of filling people with hope but fear as well. Nicholas Carr has written an intriguing article titled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” which discusses how technology is changing the way we as humans think. Carr believes that technology is changing us negatively by shortening our attention span and preventing in depth thought and study. Through his article, Carr effectively demonstrates the manner in which technology is negatively impacting the way we think. One effective point Carr uses in his argument is fueled by historical evidence. Carr tells of a man from the 1880s named Friedrich Nietzsche and his issue of failing vision. Nietzsche solves his problem by buying a typewriter and learning to write without the use of his eyes. However, one of Nietzsche’s friends noticed that his writings had changed stylistically, “His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic” (Carr 319). Since writing for Nietzsche had switched from pen and paper to typing on a machine, his ideas altered from human-like passionate and emotional text to straight and mechanical sentences. Carr’s view is aided by this historical evidence by explaining how technology changed the way

He writes about a feeling of a change of thought process he gets when he reads. Reading books or lengthy articles came easily to Carr, but now he cannot stay focused on what he reads for more than a few pages. He believes his struggle to concentrate on long texts originates from spending too much time online, saying that any kind of research he needs can be found and fulfilled in minutes. Carr also explains that reading online has been converted to skimming pages and searching for summaries of his desired info, instead of reading full length articles. When an author, such as Carr, can directly relate to the subject, it makes his writing much more sincere and