Is Google Making Us Stupid? Intro and Body Paragraph

Brett Stinson

RWS 100

Professor Werry

The past century has provided the earth with a massive technological landslide in the form of cell phones, radios and what many describe as the leading advancement of our civilization, The Internet. After the Internets public release it has provided an everyday citizen with access to the largest library in the world known as the World Wide Web. Although the Internet started out as a source that rarely provided success with slow and glitchy servers, and very few had a viable source of access, it awed the public audience as it was something that no one could have ever imagined coming into existence. Today the internet is bustling with high speeds and more websites than you could visit in a lifetime, ranging from how to bake a cake to how to solve quantum mechanics, the possibilities of the internet are endless. Although the internet has created a golden brick road leading to endless answers, it has stirred up great controversy. In 2008 the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” was written by Nicholas Carr discusses the worldwide debate on whether the internet is doing more good for the public or is it dimming us down. Carrs main argument is that the internet has created a negative effect on the human brain as it has caused it to be always wanting more information more rapidly and it causes the mind to always become distracted and thinking about other things. In this paper I will explore the rhetorical strategies implemented in Carr's argument and discuss whether he has created a persuasive argument.

One of the most efficient tools implemented by Carr is the usage of Big Name comparisons, the main one being the references often made to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey mainly during the scene where David Bowman is disassembling the artificial intelligence known as HAL. He uses this scene as a comparison to how the internet is "tinkering with [his] brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory"(Carr 1). In this comparison Carr is describing how he is similarly suffering the same cognitive effects as he attempts to immerse himself in longer texts but cannot succeed. This comparison provides a good base for his argument, especially for those who have viewed the film, as it provides pathos as some find themselves in the same predicament that HAL and Carr are in. The specific comparison not only provided a stable emotional connection between the reader and the subject Carr is addressing, but it also provided a connection between the movie as a whole. It provides a larger connection as HAL in the film is controlling the passengers on the spacecraft the same way that the internet is controlling and manipulating the users. By utilizing the techniques of comparing Carr’s argument to a Big Name that many can compare to allows the reader to immerse themselves in a deeper level of the argument as it provides them with a sense of pathos.