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  • Essay / Technology in “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr

    Technological progress is rapid. It seems like a new iPhone model is released every day. Technology is also constantly evolving. New smart TVs, self-driving cars, touchscreen computers, and everything else in technology are updated over and over again. So much new stuff in such a short time that it's hard for us to stay away from these creations. Technology is so convenient; Computers, to be precise, can do anything we want them to do. We can access TV shows, play games, read books and get our questions answered in seconds, but the question is: is this a blessing or a curse? In his article “Is Google making us stupid?” ", Nicholas Carr says that people rely so much on the Internet and search engines like Google that it prevents them from doing things that were previously easy. “Once, I was a diver in an ocean of words. Now I glide across the surface like a guy on a jet ski. Said Carr (p426). He states that before he was able to read and understand long pieces of text easily, but now he can barely read a passage. Carr believes that we are very dependent on the Internet and that this weakens our reading and writing skills and the way we receive information. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay So “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Presumably Carr would answer yes to this question, but I disagree. Although Carr makes an excellent argument that he and so many other authors who write on this topic make, he also misses the mark. The dart hit the board, but it wasn't a target. Yes, frequent internet use diminishes our ability to read in depth and engage with stories. Yes, it can induce a level of laziness that wasn't there before and yes, it can be detrimental to the future of reading and writing. But Carr suggests that the fault lies with the Internet. He openly blames it, saying: "And what the Internet seems to do is reduce my capacity for concentration and contemplation." Carr doesn't realize that what he seems to be doing is allowing this to happen. He mentioned in his essay that he spent a lot of time surfing the internet clicking from link to link and doing searches that took days or minutes (p425). Carr only has himself and others to blame for their indulgence in the "Net," as he called it. How can anyone claim that internet use is detrimental to cognition, when it is something they use in their daily lives? Many of us lack self-discipline; If people knew how to limit themselves and their use of the Internet, there would be no problem. Carr seems a bit ungrateful, the internet was designed to make things easier and more convenient, but here he's upset that he can only skim the content instead of reading it in depth like he did before, so that in fact, that’s kind of the goal. . An extract from the study carried out by students at University College London reads: "...indeed, there are signs that new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'navigate' horizontally to across headlines, content pages and summaries in an effort to win quickly. . It almost seems like they're going online to avoid reading in the traditional sense. “Things are constantly changing and the way we read is part of it. Carr must..