Is Google Making Us Stupid

12 September 2013

How Technology is Altering Us

In the article, “Is Google Making us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr talks about a topic that explains how technological media is “taking over” our lives. This crucial impact is altering the way humans think and act completely. Nicholas Carr intelligently argues that the internet has shaped the way readers think nowadays. He mentions the supercomputer HAL, from the movie “A Space Odyssey,” and how the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman is disconnecting the memory circuits that control HAL’s artificial brain. This is when Carr explains to us that the computer could “feel [its] mind going” (67). With this beginning, Carr starts to explain to us that his mind has also become much more erratic since his use of the internet. “An uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going but it’s changing,” is what Carr writes to compare the supercomputer’s mind with his (67). Therefore, the technological mediations alter our sense of self by changing our personalities and making us a complete different person. These technologies affect our daily behavior vastly. Although technology makes our lives much easier, this is the reason why we rely on technology to complete all of our daily tasks.

Technology has completely changed the way we read in the traditional way. We rely on skimming the piece of writing as fast as we can. We think reading this way saves our time. However, we have just been becoming lazier and lazier as technology comes up with new ways to “read” online. Carr further supports his view by stating various examples. He finds a published study of online research habits conducted by scholars from the University College London. As he clearly states, this study “suggests that we may well be in the midst of sea change in the way we read and think” (Carr 68). The university found that students would just be “bouncing” out...