The internet has become a major breaking technological innovation throughout the past decades. It has become such an integral part of human’s life, modern technology has been evicting the way people learn and socialize making it easily accessible to people who use the internet, but it has a numerous of disadvantages affecting the mental health of humans and many more. According to the author Nicholas G. Carr, who wrote “Is Google Making Us Stupid” was published in July/August of 2008 by The Atlantic Magazine. Carr argues that the more the web is being used , people have a hard time staying focused which has lead to technology affecting our attention span and overall thinking. Carr implements how the internet has changed how we read and learn new things. Carr uses ethos, pathos and logos to show his readers how the internet has changed how humanity lives today.
Before the internet didn’t even exist people had to go to libraries to utilize books in deep search for an answer to questions like a dictionary therefore, having to read thoroughly without getting distracted. The internet contains so much information that now people can easily type in keywords into google which gives them the answers to any question in seconds. This main points are explained throughout Carr’s article because he is trying to explain how he sees the internet and how its affecting our brains.
In Carr’s article he incorporates ethos to give credibility to his source as well as trying to convince his audience. A person that Carr knows named Scott Harp who writes blogs about online media and had a major in literary, confessed that, “ He has stopped reading books altogether.” (Carr 426). Karp is a good credible source for Carr’s article because even though this does not show what the author believes shows the audience a credible person that has experience in reading and writing because they create blogs and they have a literary major in college.
In addition, Carr used a lot of pathos throughout the article which refers to emotion, keeping the audience active. In the beginning of the article Carr states,“ I can feel it, too. Over the past few years, I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory.” (424). This quote expresses the tone of confusion because something is making his brain feel uncomfortable and triggering. Carr wants the audience to understand how the internet has influenced on how we read due to the difference between deep and distracted reading.
Lastly, throughout the rest of the article Carr incorporates logos as a way to define evidence through his article. In the article, Carr uses a quote expressing logos stating, “ The human brain is almost infinitely malleable. The dense connections formed among the 100 billion or so neurons inside our skulls” (Carr 430). This demonstrates logos because it shows that the human brain can be programmed as a computer which take the qualities of technology we use. Another example of logos used throughout the article it states, “ Research that once required days in the tsacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after” (425). This represents logos because it demonstrates the advancement of Google compared way before computers existed.
Throughout Carr’s use of personal struggles, writing techniques, and citing examples of researchers from universities and other groups, Carr is able to establish a argument that the internet is changing our process of thought. People’s well being will be hurt unless people limit their use of the internet. The web is chipping away our capacity of our brain intelligence and concentration. The more qualities of technology we use are acquired, this will lead to less humanity in the world.