Paper 2: Is Google Making us Stupid?
In Nicholas Carr's essay titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" the author writes, "What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation." Carr is making his claim that the internet is ruining our ability to concentrate and that Google has come to change the way humans think. The emotion that Carr gives is that Google has taken advantage of the way we think with our brains and, by using the internet for most of our readings, we find ourselves feeling lost. Carr shows that he is upset on how this is happening, and he finds that he isn't the only one, but others were feeling the same way. In addition, I will be analyzing Carr's method using the Toulmin model; where I will break down his claims, data, warrants, backing and rebuttals that he may use through out his article.
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A data visualization of Wikipedia as part of the W...To begin his essay Carr starts off with an example from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odysseys. He uses the supercomputer HAL, in this sense HAL is pleading because he cannot remember stating, ""Dave, my mind is going," and forlornly says, "I can feel it; I can feel it". Carr goes on to write that he can feel it too, "I'm not thinking the way I used to think" (pg4). The author feels what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away at the capacity for concentration and contemplation. Stating, "The Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind" (Carr 5). Carr feels that since the internet has become one of people's assets and then rely on it so much they are losing so much more.