Ryan Daunt
ENG 151
Dr. Licastro
Rhetorical Analysis
There is a growing concern for our generation throughout our lives in relation to the growing dependence on the internet and technology and the impacts these tendencies have on us mentally. It is something that many people talk about but there often lacks any credible scientific facts or statistics to back such claims up. In the piece, however, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” By Nicholas Carr he talks about the facts behind our increasing tendencies towards technology. In specific, he discusses the
difference between conventional reading and reading electronically and how well we retain information between the two.
Nicholas Carr is an author and scholarly journalist who writes articles and books about current world issues and delves into questions that people wonder about. He has written for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Wired. These sources are all taken very seriously and shows he is most likely qualified to be writing articles about such scientific and technical information. He deals heavily in the technological field with his writing, a lot of his articles dealing with questions and concerns
regarding technologies impacts on our everyday life.
The audience of this piece is a bit harder to determine, being that it was posted online and everyone having access to this information. His intended audience was most likely teenagers around age 15 to young/ middle age adults around 55. Any younger or older the reader would either not care enough about the information to take interest, or too old to access or bother reading it. While a lot of older people would likely agree with the points he is making, the article itself is written on a platform
that they already do not like. It is interesting it was chosen to be written this way because a large population of people who would agree and take interest in his points often do not use the technology that he portrays as negative in his article. His secondary audience could definitely be these people; however, he is primarily focusing on the technologically inclined portion of our population, mainly those interested in learning about the effects the technology they are using has on them.
The purpose of this piece is mainly to inform, letting anyone who reads it knows the science and impact of their or other people’s habits. He delves into the root of the issue, talking about the brain and how it has been altered over time with the evolution of technology. Carr begins this explanation by discussing how “the Net is becoming a universal medium” and that it is where most will go to gather information. Since our generation has such easy access to information, through the use of google
and other websites similar to it, we have become more and more dependent on such resources. He brings up how humans have been declining in their ability to both recall and retain information as well. There is a definitive connection between this increased use of tech, and our lessened abilities as readers and information containers. We have become more inclined to skim reading over deeper reading. This is mainly because our culture is one reliant on efficiency and speed, it is much easier for one
to quickly skim an article, find the most important parts and export these points into an output, rather than fully deep reading a piece and learning a concept fully. This is where our generation is shifting, and he wants to call light to this issue. Technology is ever evolving and continuing to be more and more convenient, making it more and more dangerous to our memory abilities.
This piece is writing on the Atlantic, a popular place for scholarly articles such as this. It is written during a period in our history where technology is growing at a pace that the human race has never before witnessed and the long term effects of these new technologies are relatively unknown. While it is written/posted on a website, it still appears professional. The font and scheme of the page contain only simplistic designs and colors. It has one picture and focuses much more on its content
rather than its’ aesthetic. It is particularly more appealing because of this simplistic style and professional tone making it seem much more credible than if it had been written in another way. This piece calls to light a somewhat overlooked aspect of how technology has begun to change and impact our everyday life, changing our culture, and the way we work.
This piece focuses very heavily on informing the audience on its point. It can be classified as informative mainly, while also being in a sense persuasive. It focuses on informing the reader on the effects’ technology has on us, while also having an evident bias against these tech heavy forms of gathering information.
Citations:
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 13 June 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/.