The Logic of "Is Google Making us Stupid?"


Nicholas G.Carr was born in 1959. He is an American writer. His writing is about technology, business and culture. His famous article covered the critical effects of cognition on the internet. This article “Is Google Making us Stupid?” ‘What the Internet is Doing to our Brains!' deals with technological thoughts. This issue was published in the July / August 2008 edition of 'The Atlantic Magazine'. According to the title, we might think that it only targeted Google. But this article talks about online issues which we face daily and contains cognitive impacts on humans due to the usage of the internet. The writer starts with the changes which he noticed in himself. The way of his thinking, reasoning and reading abilities were drastically changed. He figured out it was due to the conception of the internet.

1. The main purpose of this article is to make people aware of how their intellectual processes are getting affected by using the internet. The writer speaks about the changes that are happening in everybody in this modern world. He emphasized the lack of continual deep-reading skills which we missed. The prolonged period of spending time on the internet impacts attention span. He said 'Google is doing for the work of the mind.' Over some time using the internet will lead to the inability to think deeper about any long writings. He contrasted the learning process while using printed and digital forms. 

2. The key question that the author is addressing is whether the human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive. Richard Foreman stated that “We risk burning into pancake people” – spread wide thin as we connect with that vast network of information accused by the mere touch of a button. Also, Kubrick’s dark prophecy says that as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world it is our intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence. These philosophies made the writer speculate about the upgrading of human mental potential.

3. The most important information in this article is stated below. We can tell for sure that the way of thinking is entirely shifted in every people after internet practice. Occupying ourselves in a book by reading a long writing piece used to be easy before. But now reading more than two to three pages drifts us and the concentration is gently much low. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle for everyone. Scott Karp, the one who writes blogs on the internet about online media. He confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether.

4. The main conclusions in this article are stated by Nicholas G.Carr that who is concerned with people’s mental health and regards everyone's mental retention and the effects of technology on the brain’s neural circuitry. Studies have supported Carr’s point of view, stating very similar thoughts like long-term psychological and neurological changes are vital in the modern world due to the high usage of the internet. Too much information is confusing people and stressing them out. He is confirmed that he is not the only one who is caught up in this spiral. Most of them are facing similar kinds of challenges.

5. The concept we need to understand in this article, firstly human intelligence invented artificial intelligence which represents human intellectual abilities that are higher than machines. Research shows that people turned on to skim through instead of the deep reading method when they got to know that the reading piece is large in characters. Through these concepts, the author indicates that there is a huge variation in human intellectual development in the internet world. Decision-making and complex reasoning regions of the brain are drastically hindered due to the usage of online reading.

6. The main assumptions underlying the author’s thinking might be what he thinks about the internet and how it modifies human development. The processing of artificial intelligence is faster than the thinking speed of human mankind. This makes the writer think about the upgrading of human mental capabilities. Question the replacing humanity with what? Concentration on a long piece of reading pieces is not preferable by anybody. This made the main assumption that was underlying the writer's mind and made him write it out as an article. He strongly believes that the printed pages will not distract as much as the digital forms do.

7. If we take these lines of reasoning seriously, the implication is to make us to aware of doing it in our lives. Accepting that we are easily distracted by online platforms, will take us to the next step. Being mindful of these will make people force themselves to read long prose or essay and get the ability to think deeply. These will make a path to get back on track. If we fail to take these lines of race's intellectual level this will affect cognition. The internet will be bombarded with lots of distractions which will affect our attention span.

8. The main points of view presented in this article are the following. We are feeling convenient to make texts using our gadgets. But not okay with reading long paragraphs. The downside of that is it will keep us pretty much in a perceptual state of distraction and constant interruptions. It leads to not getting any encouragement or any reward for concentrated thoughts are for paying attention to one thing without any interruptions. This results in us not getting many benefits. We have been stressed by lots of information online but not getting ample time to think about them deeply.

In the last few decades, neuroscientists and psychologists have discovered that human brains are very adoptable at the cellular level and that's not only for kids but also for adults. Our brains adapt to what we use them for and they adapt to the technologies we are. The ways of thinking that we engage in a lot get strengthened and those that we don't engage in get weakened. When we read a printed page, the ways of thinking that in effect and training ourselves to do deep attention and close concentration on one thing. This got hard to do these days.





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