Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr, is an essay based on how the author is trying to persuade the reader that Google is making us stupid. Is Google Making Us Stupid? is an article that appeared in The Atlantic in 2008. Carr’s main argument is that the internet has change the way we process information and how easy it is now. He defends his arguments by using examples of research done by various studies. Carr uses his credibility, logos, pathos, and ethos to make this essay a successful persuasive argument.
Carr uses plenty of writing techniques that made everything flow together. He uses examples very effectively, using them to lead into main points. He talks about his personal struggles with reading too. He also uses plenty of quotes in this article. Carr uses pathos effectively. For example, the typewriter, Friedrich Nietzsche’s vision was failing him so he ought a typewriter so that words could flow from his mind to the page. The typewriter changed the way he wrote, his “tight prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic”. The whole prospect of this article is bittersweet tragedy. Technology has aid us but we forgot there are consequences. Carr expresses fear and dread of the prospect of artificial intelligence surpassing that of humans.
In the article, Is Google Making Us Stupid, Carr uses ethos to give credibility to his sources as well as to convince the audience that what he saying is true. One of the points that he clearly pointed out was that everyone, even people that write books, articles, blog, etc. have stopped reading like they used to because the internet has caused prople to quickly scan a page to get the main point of whatever they are reading. A person that Carr had known, “Scott Karp, who writes a blog about online media, recently confessed that he stopped reading books altogether.” Karp is a good credible source foe Carr’s article because he gives proof that he actually experienced this problem in reading because of the internet.
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Lastly, Carr uses logos throughout the whole essay by using quotes from interviews, conversations, or statistics. One of the main points made and mentioned multiple times is that with the internet that we have today. We are able to look up an answer to a question with just a couple of quick clicks and reading. He states the “research that once required days in the stcks 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.” This represents logos because it shows the advancement of Google and the internet compared to the days before computers. This supports his article due to the fact that before computers, in order to answer a question or search for something, people had to look through piles of books, where now, because of the internet, we can find the answer in minutes instead of hours.
In conclusion, the essay Is Google Making Us Stupid, Nicholas Carr executed his plan for making this article a persuasive argument. I agree with Carr that we form connections to the devices that we use for communication. They make our lives easier but it come at a cost.
