Analysis Of Nicholas Carr's 'Is Google Making USupid?'

In "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Nicholas Carr argues his deep concern on the use of the Internet and how it is affecting our brains. Carr feels like he has built upon the habit of skimming through articles for research. As a frequent user he has built such a strong habit of this that he can now no longer have the patience to sit down and read an actual book. For it lacks the instant gratification he is so used to getting from the Internet: "What the net seems to be doing is chipping away from my capacity for concentration and contemplation," Carr confesses. The Internet is changing the way its user’s minds process information. People are losing concentration easier than before and instead of truly reading material, they are skimming and mentally
noting what appears to be important. Carr further alleges, "Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words, now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski."

The article goes in depth on how the Internet is affecting the way we: "think, read, and remember". Carr starts off explaining how the computer long ago began with little information: "My mind is going...I've had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the natural circuitry, reprogramming the memory." Carr is saying that his mind isn't going at this moment, but it is changing just like the super computer HAL. Programmers are making today's computer the source for all information. Nicholas Carr goes on to discuss how he notices this change mostly when he is reading long passages. The once easy to read book, has become a struggle. Carr says, "Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages." Marshall McLuhan, a media theorist, pointed out in the 1960's,"Media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. Carr believes, "[His mind] expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it." Carr mentioned his troubles to close friends and colleagues and they responded with the same concerns: "The more they use the web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing."

Carr assembles a good deal of evidence drawn from recent, and not so recent experimental work, which shows, he believes, that the use of digital technology is actually changing not just what we do, but how we think. Because reading and writing is not routed in our genes as much as speech is, the way we write depends heavily on which tools we have to do so. For example, an author will write in a totally different style if he has to write with pen and paper, than if he can write blindly using a typewriter. This can enhance the flow of thoughts and precision. Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter in 1882, the machine at the moment was incredible: "The typewriter rescued [Nietzsche]" he mastered touch typing with his eyes closed in no time, soon enough: "The machine had a subtler effect on his work.... [Nietzsche's] vision was failing, and keeping his eyes focused on a page had become exhausting and painful." The words that were passed from his brain to his fingertips began to change, "His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic." Carr also gives an insight of how intellectual technologies, such as, the invention of the mechanical clock (14th century), have had an impact on our way of living and thinking. All of a sudden, the structure of our daily activities seemed to have to fit into a mathematical system, causing us to lose our natural senses.

Carr uses the examples, that we are using our brain as if it were a clock or a computer. Internet has developed so far that it can function as our hand held clock, TV, radio, text messenger, calculator, and more. Even the news on TV and on paper is adapting to the Internet, and it allows fast and easy access to desired information. Frederick Winslow Taylor, who published “The Principle of Scientific Management” in 1911, used the clock to develop algorithms. He identified one best method of tackling certain activities in working environments of manual labor. Taylor designed exact motion sequences, based on his motion studies, where he broke every task into single motions, optimized each motion, and designed an optimal sequence. Carr goes on to advocate: "the Internet promises to have particularly far-reaching effects on cognition." Carr confirms his argument through Alan Turing, a British mathematician: "[Turing] proved that a digital computer, which at the time existed only as a theoretical machine, could be programmed to perform the function of any other information-processing device." Carr asserts that this is exactly what we are seeing today.

Carr uses Internet giant, google, to create a widely recognizable example of how Internet use affects cognition. "[google] has declared that its mission is "to organize the world's information and to make it accessible and useful" It seeks to develop "the perfect search engine." Conclusively, this is affecting our mental process of knowing what our real knowledge is and isn’t. The young man who founded goggle, Larry Page, says "The ultimate search engine is something as smart as people-or smarter." goggle is being motioned to, "to solve problems that have never been solved before." says Eric Schmidt's. Essentially today, any person young or old smart or disabled; every person has the right to access a site filled of endless amounts of information. Why call up a vet, when within the comfort of our own home, you can type a few words and within seconds, pops up answers from such places as, discussion forums, popular websites. Every possible way to give the same answer in delivered right in front of you in a hundred different ways.

In conclusion, Carr is implying to scare us in to opening our eyes by telling us that goggle essentially wants to replace all of our brains with high functioning super computers, and that it will be terrible for us.
This comical take on the socialization of the Internet is extreme. Today, we need both pond-skaters and scuba divers; we need to master the ability to access facts while reserving time and space to do something meaningful with them. It is true our technologies are changing us, but in ways we can neither anticipate nor control. Because of the instant access to the Internet, we are able to get answers faster and more efficiently; this gives us an advantage toward learning, and in return can affect us. Overall I feel that if the Internet is being overused, therefore there may be long term gradual effects. I’m willing to take risk the chance, if I’m learning; soaking up new information in the process. Lastly, Carr says: "As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence." This may be true, if you wrongly abuse your sources of information; just as anything can be misused. Take and use what we have when we need it, not just only when we want it and have to have
it.