Is Google Making Us Stupid?
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicholas Carr implies that he notices that something is causing his brain to change. He realizes that he is not thinking the way he used to think, especially during reading. While reading in the past, he explains how he would be able to engage in long articles or books, but now finds his concentration drifting away after just a couple of pages. He began to realize these differences since he has started utilizing the internet. Carr aims to convince his readers that our brains are trying to move at the same rates as the internet, skimming rather than completely soaking in new information. The internet is creating a new method of learning, much different from the traditional book or printed way of learning. Carr supports his belief by describing how intellectual activities are being replaced by technology, the development of the “one best method”, and Google’s motive to make the internet more accessible. Carr begins his essay with the example of Friedrich Nietzsche and his story of the typewriter. Friedrich Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer, and classical philologist. He suffered from dementia after becoming paralyzed from a stroke. Losing his ability to write by hand, Nietzsche bought a typewriter and was able to write again. Carr uses him as an example because it showed how even though using the typewriter efficiently allowed him to write again, it changed the form and skill of his writing. Nietzsche was reprogrammed, but this time with a lesser software. This example shows that Carr is clever and witty with his comparisons. He provides another example that timekeeping instruments are taking place of our biological clock and people are relying on the clock rather than their own senses. This example corresponds with Carr’s belief that intellectual activities are being replaced by technology, or being reprogrammed. Following his idea of