Preview

The Internet vs our brain

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1217 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Internet vs our brain
English 1130.021
February 19th, 2014
Word count: 1094
The Internet and Its Destruction of Our Brain For billions of people across the globe, the Internet is a crucial part of their everyday lives whether for business or social purposes. The amount of Google searches per day has skyrocketed over the last 15 years. In 1998, the average number of searches was 9,800. Today, there are over 5.9 trillion per day (Comscore). The Google search engine is only two decades old (Comscore), but has significantly changed the way it has allowed people think. People are continuing to rely on the Internet instead of their brains, resulting in a decrease of one’s ability to think deeply, perform connection making and interact with others.
Some would say that the Internet has become bliss for students completing school work. With easy access to unlimited information, assignments and essays can be done in a fraction of the time it would take without the Internet. However, with the Internet comes the temptation of plagiarism. Since the Internet is so accessible, the quick and easy act of “cut and paste” becomes frequent. In 2011, one in three high school students admit that they had used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment (McCabe 2). It seems as though many people are not going online to do traditional reading, but to find the ‘quick fix’ so they can answer the question instantly. The connection making aspect has been lost due to the lack of in depth reading and applying this new knowledge to an assignment. In Nicholas Carr’s essay, “Is Google making us Stupid?” he introduced an experiment conducted by scholars from the University College London who performed a study about the behaviour of people visiting two research websites. They concluded that:
People using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited. They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Is Google Making USupid

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Nicholas Carr, in "Is Google Making Us Stupid?," conveys a message about what the internet is doing to human brains. Lack of focus and laziness are the new normal for human behavior, and Carr speculates what seems to be making humans disconnected from the world they are living in and leading them into acting like robots.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Nicholas Carr’s article he expresses how the Internet is changing our brains and making us think differently. When he is reading a novel he experiences himself not fully opening up the book and being easily distracted. Instead of reading he is simply skimming and not delving into the text. He explains his trouble as “ I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I am dragging my wayward brain back to the text” (2). By Carr’s observations he realizes that what used to be natural is now a struggle. Instead of really researching a topic people are allowing search engines like Google, to make their lives easier and research for them. Although you are still learning and searching the links are pushing you towards an answer instead of allowing your brain to think for itself.…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The internet is a technology which has had a significant impact on the way many people conduct their lives. Information once contained in massive volumes at libraries or in private collections is now available by typing words into a search engine and clicking “search.” One must no longer pick up a phone to call a friend, relative or colleague; e-mail, instant messaging, Skype and the like, have enabled people to communicate in non-traditional ways and across boundaries previously inaccessible. Nicholas Carr addresses the wonder that is the internet in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The general direction of the article is a discussion of how intelligent thought patterns seem to be changing; attention spans and critical thinking once required for thoughtful analysis appear to be moving towards a status of extinct. One particular passage of interest states:…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pathos And Logos

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It is no denying that the internet is one of the most innovational and the most influential invention in this generation. Even with all the countless advantages it brought to our society, the Internet had also brought some of its disadvantages. In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, the article discusses a few of the Internet’s drawbacks in our society. Through the use of pathos, logos, and ethos, Carr is trying to inform the audience about the damaging effects of the Internet on our brain.…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nicholas Carr, author of the article “Is Google making Us Stupid,” argues that the internet is become our main source of information, and the internet is change the way we read and write. He also argues that one day we will be taken over by the world of technology (Carr 3). Carr gives his examples by stating a personal experience, anecdote stories about his friends and collogues, he even gives facts straight from the people who work at Google, and he even uses an analogy to give an example of what he thinks will happen. Carr also shows scientific study that helped prove his theory, that people who use the internet are skimming more than they are reading. (Carr). Carr thinks that in one day the future of Google will always try to improve to…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Google-Making USupid

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Page

    In “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr expresses his concerns on how the Internet is changing the way his mind works and how it’s affecting him in a negative way. Carr suggests that the Internet offers us the benefit of quick and easy knowledge. However, he goes into details about how we merely rely on Google that makes us process information differently from the past and how it’s degrading our critical-thinking skill. Moreover, he touches upon his own experience how accessible the Internet is with hyperlinks and flashy ads that can divert his attention from reading. With this, he noticed that his capacity on concentration for reading has been taken away. Carr proved that others have experienced the same thing that he did…

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In class we watched a video from “A Space Odyssey” and read an article called “Is Google Making us Stupid?” The video is about a robot acting like a human and refusing to do what the human is telling him to do. In this case it is like the human is the robot. The tone makes it very scary. “Is Google Making us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr is about his idea that the internet is taking over and is affecting the way that the human mind operates. Carr relates it to his personal life and talks about how the internet has changed the way that he reads and has shortened his attention span. On one hand I agree with Carr’s idea that the internet is taking over. But on the other hand, I still insist that it has not fully to blame for the laziness of the people. Technology has both positive and negative development. Human thought is one of the centers of the world and it is sometimes uncomfortable and scary to think that this might change. Most people…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Google

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “I’m just going to Google it” is one of the most common phrases heard throughout high school and college campuses of today as a response to several unknown questions. Google is one of the most popular search engines of the Internet that is often referred to as the “Best Friend” of those who constantly rely on it for guidance. Since the emergence of the Internet, there has been a huge debate over whether or not Google and the Internet as a whole is hindering the human thought process. Nicholas Carr is one author that believes although Google may be our “Best Friend”, it is not necessarily good for the way that we are beginning to think. Carr outlines his argument on this subject in the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and is challenged by a counter-argument by another author, Trent Batson.…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Formal Summary

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (2010) published in the Atlantic, Nicholas Carr discusses the influence that Google brought to human being. Due to the formidable function of internet, people are gradually distracting, understanding less, remember less and learning less. Carr claims that multiple people are prefer to skimming writing pieces rather than reading the whole article. Carr also mentions that the internet not only has a huge influence on the edges of a computer screen, but also has an impact on traditional media. At the Google’s headquarters, they are looking for “the perfect search engine” that can “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want” (Carr 2010). However, all of these are actually not real for people. Although…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nowadays, if a young adult hears about a new terminology, instead of going to a library and looking it up in an encyclopedia like what his or her parents would do when they were young, he or she will pull out his or her smartphone and “google” it. Thanks to Google and all other information technology providers, the information and knowledge in this world are closer to the netizens than any other time in the history. In Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, more than acknowledging the great opportunities which Google has brought to him, Carr brings up his own concern that “the Net …is chipping away [his] capacity for concentration and contemplation.” He also points out the Net is reprogramming people’s brain circuits to change…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people use the Internet in their everyday lives, but they do not understand the negative aspect that it has in their lives. In Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he explains to us how the Internet affects our brains in a negative way. Some people disagree with Carr and say that the Internet is just a resource that we use in our everyday lives and it does not affect us negatively. Even though the internet has many positive aspects, the internet affects us more negatively in our everyday life.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For over a decade now, the World has relied upon the global Internet as a tool and means of survival. From looking up your favorite recipe on Google to checking your beloved sports teams score on ESPN, the Internet has served as a lifesaver to our existence. However Nicholas Carr, author of the short essay “Is Google Making us Stupid?” states that while the Internet may be a “lifesaver” it also has its downfalls. Carr uses personal stories and tells of his extensive research in the area to make his readers believe in his credibility. This appeals to ethos, combined with his friendly tone, create an effective argument for why the Internet might actually be making humans stupid.…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The efficiency of the web has forever changed our lives, although it might not be for the best. Ever since the invention of ways of communication, people have been talking down about them and saying they are not good for us, finally society might listen. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” written by Nicholas Carr, Carr asserts how the internet is depleting our abilities to read deeply as well as explaining how our concentration abilities deem nonexistent while trying to read anything more than a few paragraphs. The essay is written towards people who feel the effects of the efficiency of the web; loss of concentration and lack of ability to retain information. Nicholas Carr is not persuasive in his essay due to his overuse of assertion and lack…

    • 150 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Conclusion, Google can make us feel omniscient. The internet is, indeed making certain users lazy or in Carr’s term “stupid”. The internet supplies us with many distractions which in return forces us to “skim through information.” We don’t get a full understanding about things if our choice of educating ourselves is by glancing atinformation. This is also the case if we were to pick up a book and just read a few pages and expect to get a full understanding about the content. Carr agrees that the internet is a great tool, but the way in which we are using it is what is causing a lack of intelligence and users are starting to have a shorter attention span. The bottom line is that the internet is making us less smarter,ruining our ability for creative input and deep…

    • 1965 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his essay, Is Google Making Us Stupid? , Nicholas Carr argues, that although the Internet has allowed us a vast vortex of knowledge, that it is not only changing the way that we consume information, but fundamentally rewiring our brains to change the way we think. Carr argues, that the pervasive use of search engines such as Google hampers our ability for the deep and concentrating reading central pertinent to critical thought. Our over reliance on such technologies, Carr claims, has taken over where our minds use to be. People no longer in deep critical thinking and reading like they use to, but instead our dependency on the web has made so that short, easy to digest information - easy content, no substance.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays