The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

Even though Internet is the new way of communication and also helps one to keep in touch with the loved ones even when they are miles apart; technology is slowly changing us. We used to use our intelligence before for things and now we are depending on the internet and technology. In the article, “Is Google making us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr talks about what the internet is doing to our brains. He explains, that internet is taking over our intelligence, and taking over our thinking ability. Carr talks about his own experience of how he used to read a long, length article very easily and now since everything is online, he is having difficulties concentrating in article because he is forced to use a technology. “Immersing myself in a book or a

Nicholas Carr, the author of The Shallows, wrote his book to convince further society that the internet is having an adverse effect on their brains and how they are receiving information. His major thesis for the novel was expressed when he exclaimed, "...the Internet controls what we think and the process in which we think because with its efficiency and speed, we are formulating all of our thoughts through the speed of the internet rather than through the speed of our mind." Throughout the novel, Carr discusses multiple reasons on how we have changed to depend on the internet. As well as how we have let go of older versions of technology and methods of learning because they seem insufficient compared to the internet. Carr was very biased

The Internet is something that some consider their lifesavers, while others believe that it takes their life away. The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr is a novel that explores the different areas of how new technologies affect humans in different ways, regarding multi-tasking and distractions, to how new technologies make us lose a little part of ourselves. Throughout the book Carr puts forward very strong arguments, but then loses creditability with his use of fallacies in argument.

Nicholas Carr is an American author who writes the majority of books and articles about the continuously evolving world of technology and how it is effecting our society. Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times bestseller. In this essay I will be rhetorically analyzing Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid” published in 2008. The purpose of Carr’s essay was to bring light to an issue that many of us face but only a meniscal few have come to terms with; and that is that technology is mentally incapacitating our society and simultaneously making us lazy. This essay was intended for anyone was has been consumed in today’s culture by new technological advances to the extent of not being able to function without some sort of device, IE cellphone, laptop or tablet on a daily basis.

In “Is Google Making us stupid”, Carr explains how the brain is malleable and how the internet might be shaping it by literally rewiring the brains network. Carr gives a brief example of how neurons can be made and broke depending on what things shape the way things are done. By being used to instant searching and internet preferences, the brain reprograms itself in being used that certain way. He thinks by using the internet so much, we will become more and more objective and quick thinkers, and ultimately emotionless computers. He also gives examples of how the clock and typewriter changed our way of thinking in the past. Adapting this way will rewire thought processes and continue to dictate how we act. Carr’s theory may be more obvious as we continue to be reliant on technology. (Carr)

The next point, neuroplasticity, receives its own chapter in “The Shallows;” I think this was an unnecessary choice on Carr’s part. I have been repeatedly taught that the brain is plastic. I have never once questioned it being anything else. The need he felt to go in such depth with the topic is what makes me think this book’s ideas are outdated. What he took twenty pages to explain could have been summarized in two. Also, he uses the concept to create an incredibly dark picture of the world. The idea that we can be changed unwillingly is not a kind one; it takes away choice. He makes it seem like we do not choose to pick up our cell phones, but are forced to by our own, hungry brains. Even while writing this essay, I have my phone next to me. It is not because I need it, but because someone could need me, or I may just want a break. As long as people are still getting their responsibilities done, there is no harm in a little technology.

In this essay Carr’s appeal to logos is the strongest, because he shows the effect of internet to our brain. Carr explained how Michael Merzenich a scientist believe that our brain massively remodeled by the use of internet. In the 1970s and 1980s Michael conduct a famous series of experiment on our brains and how the neural in our brain response to this experiment. He was

In the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicholas Carr expresses his beliefs and personal experiences on how the internet has altered our brains and how we think. He addresses the fact that, although our brains’ abilities to deep read and concentrate are suffering, the internet is extremely beneficial and convenient. Because of the easy accessibility, it takes little to no effort to find information, and therefore, a minimal amount of thinking is required. Carr highlights that people are more impatient because of the internet and that our minds are becoming more erratic. The author used research, conducted by a U.K. educational consortium, to show that a new form of reading is developing over time; rather than reading every word on a page, it has turned to more of a skimming method. Nicholas Carr realizes that we may be doing more reading than ever due to the internet, but it is different in the way that people have to interpret the text. Reading, unlike talking, is not a natural ability. One must learn to deep read, make connections, and translate the underlying meaning. Overall, Carr believes it is a mistake to rely fully on computers because in the end, it will just be our own intelligence that morphs into artificial intelligence.

Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, questions the impact the technology has upon our lives. He argues that the internet prevents our ability to engage in deep reading and thus restricts our ability to think critically. He says this is due to the idea of neuroplasticity, which is where our brains change in order to adapt to the different stimuli it encounters. When books were first introduced, our brain had to rewire itself in order to achieve the ability to focus for long periods of time on text and to think deeply about it. This resulted in a literate deep thinker. However, the internet has forced our brain to rewire itself again. Carr says that “there is evidence that the cells of our brains literally develop and grow bigger with use, and atrophy or waste away with disuse” (22). Our brain has many structures that perform specific functions and the structures associated with deep thinking can decrease and eventually will serve no function if we don’t use it. We are much better thsn our ancestors. According to Carr, “the oral world of our distant ancestors may well have had emotional and intuitive depths we can no longer appreciate” (56). In other words, Carr believes that people in the past engaged in focused, immersed thinking. I believe that Nicholas Carr is right when he says that the internet is changing the way we think, however I don’t believe that we need to turn off the internet in order to reduce the chances of losing

In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (2008), Nicholas Carr maintains that the advent of the Internet has produced a shallow generation of information customers who lack the ability to deeply engage with and critically think about a text. To support the argument, Carr draws on personal and historical anecdotes and one scientific study. The purpose of Carr’s article is to open a dialogue about the potentially adverse effects the Internet could have on humans’ cognitive processes. Carr establishes an informal relationship with the audience, who are generally well-educated, upper-middle class individuals. Because the audience is educated, they are very capable of critically thinking. However, Carr’s use of other rhetorical strategies disarms them and detracts from the dearth of logos. His essay is rife with numerous unfounded premises, poor evidence, and logical fallacies. Because of this lack of logos is in a way compensated by including numerous appeals to ethos and pathos, the audience is likely to find the article persuasive unless they re-read the article deeply with a critical lens.

In the paper, “Is Good Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr, American author and blogger, argues that new technologies are shaping the way we think and suggest that we should not rely so much on technology. Carr begins his paper with a reference to A Space Odyssey, a 2001 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. He uses this reference to introduce the ideas that something is “tinkering” with the human brain. Many people today, including himself struggle with reading long articles. He insist that its the internet's fault. In today's time, we depend on the internet to get all out information. Nicholas Carr says “My mind now expects to take in information they way Net distributes it….”. Many people today struggle that not only the way they read is changing but also the way they think is changing as well.

In his Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr contends that the overload of information is “chipping away his capacity for concentration and contemplation”(315). He admits with easy accessibility of information online, the process of research has became much simpler(Carr 315). Yet such benefit comes with a cost. Our brains are “rewired” as the cost of such convenience(Carr 316). As the result, “we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s...but it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking”(Carr 317). Carr argues the forming of such habits can prevent us from deep reading and thinking. In fact, he provides may evidences in the

Nicholas Carr published The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains in 2011 as a result of his own personal experiences and observations of his own behavior. The book was published by W.W. Norton & Company with ISBN 978-0-393-33975-8. Carr began working on the book after he noticed that since the birth of the internet, he did not think in the same ways that he used to think; he was easily distracted and had trouble concentrating on tasks requiring a lot of thought (2011). This effect, he noticed, was not unique to him. Many of his colleagues reported that they too had lost a lot of interest in reading books, had trouble concentrating and were easily distracted (Carr, 2011). What if, Carr wondered, everyone doesn’t just prefer to do their reading on the internet for its inherent convenience and speed but rather, what if the internet was actually changing the way we all think?

“Over the past few years I’ve had 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—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” These daunting words were echoed by Nicholas Carr, author of the non-fiction , “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.” His work has received both acclimation and criticism for exploring the extent of the internet’s influence on cognition. While Carr argues that the internet is indeed responsible for rewiring our brain leading to negative implications, others believe that the internet can be tailored to generate long-term benefits, and some believe that it there isn’t enough experimental evidence to support either side.

Carr now recalls when computers started coming around in the 1980’s people thought it would allow students to think in a more rounded way because of the quick, and vast way that they received information online. According to Carr, some of effects on the brain from the constant use of internet was “disrupting concentration of the brain and weakening compression.” (Carr) To sum up the negative effect of the internet on the brain, Carr suggests that the easy access that the internet gives to us about countless forms of information has turned humans into “shallow thinkers, literally chaining the structure of our brain” (Carr). Onward, Carr notes how hypertext was believed to improve critical thinking