CARR MAKES HIS POINT

 

The article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, is by Nicolas Carr. According to his website, Carr writes about technology and culture (“Home”). Carr not only writes articles for The Atlantic, but according to his website, “…for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Wired, Nature, MIT Technology Review, and many other periodicals” (“Home”). Carr holds a college degree and is a “…former member of the Encyclopedia Britannica’s editorial board of advisors” (“Home”). Based off of the information from his website, Carr is a trustworthy author because of his expertise on multiple topics, his education level, and his effectiveness throughout all his articles. This particular author addresses his audience in these ways.

 

In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Carr argues that the internet is causing humans to face troubles when reading from a book. The primary audience of this article is students, parents, teachers, or doctors. The secondary audience is anyone interested in learning how the brain works, or anyone who uses the internet, in general. The age group for this article could range from 16-65. The ads displayed on the web, suggest that the audience must be in high school or been through it and have some knowledge relating to them. In addition to the ads, Carr uses sophisticated word choice, only a person with reading experience

can read. Based off his word choice here,  “…still await the long-term neurological and psychological experiments that will provide a definitive picture of how Internet use affects cognition…” (Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”), it’s clear to say that’s true. However, it’s important to know why he wrote this article.

  Image of higher level word choice.

The purpose of this article is to inform the world that the internet is causing troubles when reading into a book, known as the “traditional sense”. However, Carr is promoting a message that the internet is forcing problems onto to humans we may or may not notice, but also mention the advantages of using the web. He says, “Our ability to interpret text… remains largely disengaged” (Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”). The internet is triggering unknown habits. Carr’s primary intentions is to inform the reader of the advantages and disadvantages of reading online. His secondary intention is to persuade the readers to read online, but also to continue reading on paper. He’s suggesting that you should read specific texts on paper and others online. Nonetheless, whether you read more online or not, it’s essential to know why Carr says what he says.

The article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” was written in July/August of 2008. Typically, this article would be read in a classroom, on a computer, and/or a tablet or phone. This article would most likely be published in a magazine or at a school, or doctor’s office. This article may also be a link on social media. Carr formats his article in a way that keeps the reader’s attention. He uses images, such as interesting colorful ads after each couple paragraphs. Also, he utilizes highlighted words, names, phrases, and/or titles of texts.

Like other internet articles, this article contains, ads, pictures relating to the topic of the article, and highlighted words. The Atlantic magazine “…publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion…” (“Left-Centered Bias”). Unlike other sources, this article really doesn’t display any bright colors, besides the pictures under the paragraphs. However, the picture where you first start reading the article is brightly colored and looks like it could be hand drawn or painted. The image displays a man, “internet patrol” giving another man a ticket. This picture gives an comical aspect to Carr’s article because it shows us how the internet controls our life.

The font of the title, subtitles, and captions, all use different fonts. In the opening page of the article, there is a big heading in bold text that captures the reader’s attention. The entire article is written in Times New Roman font, besides the subtitle, the author’s name, and the issue date. Although, the article was straightforward and easy to navigate, I wish the article wasn’t as long as it is because it did become difficult to keep my attention. In spite of that, Carr’s article did supply its readers with sufficient evidence.

To sum up, the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” was very convincing. I was convinced because Carr’s use of numerous sources to defend his claims, his expertise of this topic, and his effectiveness with making his claims. Carr’s article persuaded me because he was able to convince me to continue reading online, but also to keep reading on paper too.

 

 

 

Has The Internet Shaped Our Ways That We Read?

The author of the famous essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is by a man who technology geeks fear named Nicholas Carr. Carr is an avid writer about technology and the use of electronics in our society and culture. Carr has written for a variety of online data bases that range from The Atlantic, The New York Times, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, and many other small sources. Over the course of many years, Carr finally wrote and published four books including a home run called, “The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us,” (2014) which shows his readers the dependency of technology that we, as a society, have begun to show negative effects from that usage. This author has also written a well set of essays as well. Throughout his writing path, Carr was a writer-in-residence at the University of California Berkley’s journalism school and has written the blog called Rough Type, since 2005 (“Home” nicholascarr.com).

Now, with his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” the target audience is an array of viewers. The primary audience is the adults of our society ranging from the late twenties all the way to the old age, as they can relate to his arguments and the differences that he faced when researching online compared to the library before the internet was easy to access. Carr also has a secondary audience. The secondary audience is the millennials, as they grew up with this type of technology surrounded by them. Today, everywhere you look, you’ll see a teenager using their cell phone. Back in the day, there wasn’t anything compared to that as cell phones like the ones today never existed or cell phones didn’t even exist at all.

Illustration by Guy Billout
The illustration presented shows how the internet owns our ways we read lately. (Illustration by Guy Billout, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

Going on, the purpose of this article was to provide the viewer both the advantages and disadvantages the internet has brought us. When it comes to his advantages, Carr provides the viewer with an example as to why he believes the internet has helped. In his article he writes, “The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes.” (Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”) He shows how with the fast-paced internet, he can find research with a click of a button. This has provided a considerable sum of time saved. Now, there is a catch that Carr expresses as well. The author has shown that with the use of Google and the internet, our minds have gotten lazy and will skim read everything they see and not gather as much information as needed. He provides an example, with himself, as how he can barely focus on even a blog post. Carr also finds the use of a friend that has the exact same problem with. In, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr quotes Bruce Friedman, an avid blogger who posts blogs about medicine. Friedman says, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” (Quoted Friedman, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”) which shows that even the best of us struggle to now capture the idea of what we are reading online.

The title is has a larger text size to grab the reader’s attention from the barely colorful website. (theatlantic.com)

When it comes to the context, this article was written for The Atlantic in its 2008 July/August issue. The Atlantic is a publication center formed in 1857 to provided us to, “Create a distinctly American voice: to project an American stance, to promote something that might be called the American Idea.” (“History Document” theatlantic.com) Today, The Atlantic is mainly an online news source with topics ranging from business, technology, education, science, or even global news. Now, the essay that Carr wrote for The Atlantic, “Is Google Making US Stupid?” was written like a normal website as it flows with little to no breaks in between except with advertisements. Carr writes this piece (very much like a blog post) as people would view it on an electronic device and expects it to be shared over social media due to the countless, “share,” buttons scattered around. Carr will try to prove his point that many people will just skim read or get easily distracted with the small use of advertisements and pictures in his writing.

These “share” buttons appear at the bottom of the website whenever you scroll down. (share buttons, theatlantic.com)

With the user experience of The Atlantic’s website has a lot of sub-headers that provide the viewer the ultimate experience of documents. With this website, they provide the use of sections with, popular, latest, magazines, sections that are being written on like culture and technology, and areas that give hands on sharing tool. The essay provides an illustration by Guy Billout explaining that speed reading is monitored by the “Internet Police.” Carr only uses one illustration to capture how he feels about the internet taking over how we read. With the website that this essay was published in, colors don’t stand out as it is mainly a black and white surface. It feels like a book with little to no illustrations. It does provide pictures throughout the essay that is almost like propaganda to join the Atlantic.

These are the advertisements that will feature stories written on the website as well. (Advertisements, theatlantic.com)

Carr’s essay is written like a blog post, as it is mainly in Lyon text format, and flows like any blog would. With the Lyon text font, Carr uses this to “POP” the text on the website. His font size is also bigger than normal websites, causing the viewer’s eyes to be more focused on that piece of text instead of the small amount of advertisements. Even the title captures the viewer’s attention with its bold font.

Carr expresses the use of technology as a sin. He has shown that by surrounding ourselves inside of technology, we take advantage of it and will skim everything to go on with our lives. Carr is a trustworthy source when it comes to the argument of technology taking over our ways we read. For example, Carr will provide other interpretations and outsources other people’s work, like Kubrick’s A Space Odyssey to show, “the essence of Kubrick’s dark prophecy: as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence” (Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”). With his background, Carr has expressed technology in most of his books that have won numerous awards like a New York Times bestseller (“Home” nicholascarr.com). His opinion on that the internet is making our society stupid, I find to be a fifty-fifty point of view but being lazy is a different story. Over the years, technology has risen and given our society an easier sense of reality. It has caused our minds to take advantage and only skim for the needed information. Nether less, Carr provides key points, both with stories, and other people’s opinions to the table in his essay of, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” that should lead the idea of if the internet is changing our intelligence or not, to an eventual answer.

 

Work Cited:

Billout, Guy. “Man with a Book Gets Pulled over by the Internet Police.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/. 24 Sept. 2017.

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 27 Apr. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

Carr, Nicholas. “Nicholas Carr.” Nicholas Carr, www.nicholascarr.com/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

Murphy, Cullen. “History of Atlantic Monthly.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 1994, www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/about/atlhistf.htm. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

“The Atlantic.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, www.theatlantic.com/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

He Has a Point

The author of the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, is Nicholas Carr. Nicholas Carr is well known for his publications, The Shallows and The Glass Cage: Automation and Us (“Is Google Making Us Stupid”). He has also written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired (Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”). In a biography of Carr it asserts he specializes in writing about technology and culture. He is also a former member of Encyclopedia Britannica’s editorial board of advisors and an executive editor of Harvard Business review. According to his personal site “Nicholas Carr“, his education entailed a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a M.A. in English, American Literature and Language from Harvard University (“Home”). Carr seems like he has credibility, which makes his article trustworthy. He comes across as if he is very knowledgeable about technology and uses a variety of dependable research from media theorists, bloggers, developmental psychologists, media scholars, historians, MIT computer scientists and studies which back up his assertions throughout the article.

Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, was published on The Atlantic. The Atlantic covers “news, politics, and international affairs, education, technology, health, science and culture” (Wikipedia, “Introduction”). The primary audience of this publication are middle aged people, including both men and women, who are frequently searching for a variety of news coverage. The secondary audience of The Atlantic are any age, specifically 14-25 year old’s, who are inquisitive about what is happening in the world or for research purposes. The audience for Carr’s article is congruent to the audience for this publication. Carr’s primary audience is middle aged people continuously accessing The Atlantic for primarily news coverage. His secondary audience are matured students in school who may have to research about how technology affects the way we read and write or people who are fascinated by the of technology’s impact on our reading and writing skills. Carr makes this clear by referencing A Space Odyssey in the first paragraph. This movie was produced in 2001, which makes the reference for 20-50 year old who would have been old enough to watch the movie and understand it. I know in my class nobody understood the reference because none of us were old enough to watch the movie when it came out and was prevalent. There were also flashing advertisements, in between paragraphs, for other articles on The Atlantic which were called “Rise of the connected family” and an article on the Vietnam war, “To Pledge Allegiance”, targeting middle aged individuals who most likely have families of their own. On the article page were also advertisements for internet and cable, which means you must have money and a house to find the ad relevant to your life. At the top of the article were buttons that say “share” and “tweet”, which shows there must be tech savvy people reading the article. If this article was made for elderly people, they wouldn’t know what those buttons mean nor how to use them.

Carr’s purposes are to display how the internet has modified the way we read and write and how we have simply become lazy, distracted readers. Carr portrays his purpose by using a variety of evidence in the article. He starts off by using his own personal experience stating his “concentration starts to drift after two or three pages” and he “becomes fidgety, lose the thread, and begin looking for something else to do”. He also talks about how the internet has made us become lazier. Before we would have to research for days in the library, but now we are able to search on google and find exactly what we need in a matter of minutes. Carr also talks about himself as well as his friends saying that they all think “the Net is becoming a universal medium”. This statement is true because no matter what we need, it is always there on the internet.  Carr states that the conclusion of a study performed by University College London showed “skimming activity” and the subjects would read “no more than one or two pages before hopping to another source” (qtd. in a study of online research habits from University College London). He also brings up the fact that “the last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading” and that “it’s in their best economic interest to drive us to distraction” since they get paid for how much they advertise. This ultimately ensues in our attention being scattered and disseminated concentration. The internet is a machine designed to get quick and competent information, which results in us becoming an idler and not being able to work to find information. Carr ends by stating “Kurbick’s dark prophecy” saying that the more we rely on computers, “our own intelligence flattens into artificial intelligence” (Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”).

This is the only illustration throughout the whole article

The medium of the article I read was on the web, but The Atlantic also published magazines and the article was also published in the July/August 2008 edition. This article was meant to be delivered on a phone or laptop when you have a full attention span. Whether you are looking for news articles in school, at work, in some cases at a doctor’s office or on your couch, you need to be able to focus as you read. On the website, similar informational and news articles surround it which means that these articles are all supposed to be read when you can concentrate and figure out what they are articulating. Carr adds an illustration by Guy Billout where the “internet patrol” is writing a ticket for a guy holding a book next to a speed limit sign. This picture is meant to add some humor to the article and show that the internet controls our everyday lives.

The genre of this article is an informational and critique article on how technology is affecting our reading and writing abilities. It is an informational article because it uses a lot of evidence to explain and depict how the internet affects our English skills. It is also a critique article because Carr is criticizing how we all depend on the internet to do everything for us and how he thinks it is affecting our intelligence.

These are the first things you see when you pull up the article

At the beginning of the article there is a big headline, bolded and bigger than everything else on the page to signal that this is the title and you can expect google and our intelligence to be talked about. Under the big headliner, there is the issue date and the author’s name in capital letters and highlighted in red, so you know who wrote the article without searching for the name. The web page is all white with black letters that are in a regular Times New Roman font. The only variation of font throughout the article can be found with the hyperlinks that are in a blue color font, which directs your attention to who the sources are. There is only one illustration in the whole article, which looks like it was designed on the computer and may even be clip-art. The picture shows an internet patrol officer by his car giving a man with a book a ticket, as they are standing by a speed limit sign. This picture was put into the article to show that it is uncommon for people to use books now, and that when you aren’t using the internet, there is a problem.

This article does an efficient job of persuading me that Google has made us lazy, preoccupied readers. While reading the article there are flashing advertisements and a variety of hyperlinks. This results in you getting distracted as you read about today’s society getting distracted while reading online. Not only do you firsthand get distracted, but Carr also uses a plethora of research to back up his claims. My first reaction to the article was “wow this is long” and honestly skimmed the entire article. It wasn’t until I decided to write my rhetorical analysis on the paper that I did a deep, diagnostic reading. Not only did I do a deep reading, but I printed out the article to read it. Which backs up all of his claims that we only skim read online, but use printed sources get a better understanding of the article.

 

 

Works cited:

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 27 Apr. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017.

Carr, Nicholas. “Nicholas Carr.” Nicholas Carr, www.nicholascarr.com/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

“The Atlantic.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017.