Technology is advancing rapidly and changing the way we think

Many people are slowly becoming attached to technology and relying on more of these sources because it makes their lives easier. In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” the author, Nicholas Carr, argues how the use of computers negatively affects our thought process. Carr supports his argument by providing some personal experiences, examples from different time periods, and academic discussions.

Nicholas Carr argues that humans are losing their ability to think deeply because of the internet. The author writes about some of his personal experiences, and how he feels that he cannot concentrate as well as he used to.

Carr states, “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do’’ (425). Since starting to use the Internet, his research techniques have changed.

Carr claims that he does not need to spend hours in the library anymore, and our brains have been accustomed to the way the internet makes finding information easier and that humans have become more used to skimming or just reading the summary.

Carr supports his arguments by making points that people can easily relate to. According to German scholar Friedrich A. Kittler, a philosopher named Friedrich Nietzsche changed the way he writes after he started using a typewriter. Nietzsche began using a Malling-Hansen Writing Ball because of his failing eyesight which made him to have crushing headaches while writing a paper.

Kittler also mentioned Nietzsche’s fear “He had been forced to curtail his writing, and he feared that he would soon have to give up.

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The typewriter rescued him, at least for a time’’ (429). Several people criticized Nietzche’s writing style when he started using the typewriter, and in a response to the critics, neuroscientist James Olds stated that the brain change and adapt with the use of technology. Carr uses history and scientific evidences to support his argument in how technology is changing peoples’ way to think and how our brains adapt to each change through the years. Carr agrees with the sociologist Daniel Bell that technology extends the cognitive faculties.

For example, how the mechanical clock reprogrammed people’s brains so that we started making decisions based on the clock. Carr mentioned the clock made decisions for us “In deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise, we stopped listening to our senses and started obeying the clock” (431). The author observed that throughout history technological, such as the mechanical clock people started to think of their brain as ‘like clockwork’ and the age of the computer engendering the simile ‘like computers’. James Olds mentions that brain “is very plastic” (430), so the adaptation occurs also at a biological level. Ultimately, the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr is trying to prove that technology has a negative effect to people’s lives when they rely a lot on the internet which makes them artificial intelligence.