Nicolas Car's "Is Google Making Us Stupid" Literature Essay

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Is Google Making Us Stupid?
Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” depicts how the Internet has significantly changed the way humans think and their reading behavior. Currently, the number of people gaining access to the Internet is increasing rapidly. The majority of individuals are spending more time surfing the web and searching for information in various databases. As these people search for the content they want, they click numerous hyperlinks, scan different blog posts and headlines, listen to podcasts, and watch videos. In the end, individuals might become lost and unable to concentrate on their specific searches. The web has reduced the ability of humans to think critically since all they focus on different things simultaneously instead of searching for the information they want from the Internet. For this reason, Google is making people stupid since they no longer trust their memories, do not concentrate on specific articles, affect individuals’ reading behavior adversely, and creates overreliance on it.
As many people get connected to the Internet, they over-rely on it such that they have to search for the answers to every question they come across. In other words, these individuals no longer trust their memories and thoughts since some of them believe that Google offers accurate and reliable information. Marshall McLuhan stated that media do not only act as passive channels of data, but they also supply the information that shapes the way individuals think (Carr 2). In particular, many people expect to get all the data that the Internet distributes. The availability of Google at all the time gives individuals the confidence since they can access the information they want from any part of the world. Mobile electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, have made it possible for people to search for answers they want from the Internet regardless of their geographical location. Consequently, Google is making individuals stupid since they cannot make decisions without extracting the information from it, which they believe facilitate making proper choices.
The Internet carries away people’s abilities to concentrate on something for an extended period. Many writers assert that the more they get immersed in the Internet, the more they struggle to focus on reading long pieces of prose. Traditionally, people spent more time reading books, articles, and magazines. Currently, many regular users of the web have significantly changed their reading behavior (Hooper and Herath 3). They do not focus on reading and comprehending one article, but they navigate many pieces of writing at the same time. Not many individuals who have been used to the Internet can spend more time reading long articles. Instead, they skim and scan these materials so that they can move onto the next one. Google is making people lazy to read since they want to cover more subjects suggested to them based on their reading habits, which is almost impossible for an...