The Internet and Other Technologies are Successfully Re-Wiring Our Brains

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, July/August 2008. Web. 18 January 2011.

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Nicholas Carr provides a couple interesting points in the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” that really make the reader consider how they use the Internet and other technologies that have made the term efficient have a whole new meaning. Without clearly taking a side on whether or not he appreciates new technology, Carr invokes thoughts of doubt in the reader’s mind toward how these technologies have affected the human brain as we know it. He first describes an issue that many people have problems with, reading lengthy articles and stories with full concentration and absorption throughout. The internet, Google in particular, has really changed the way the human brain thinks and comprehends information. Before the internet research was strenuous and required full concentration and determination. Sites like Google have now revolutionized research and ultimately given humans “artificial intelligence”. Researchers in the past would have to search in depth and read book after book after book in order to obtain information that they desired. Now, one can type a few words into a search engine and find almost anything they need with relative ease. It has brought a whole new meaning to the word efficiency and, as Carr expresses, made readers lazy. Articles and other sources are more often skimmed by readers for the facts and knowledge that they desire.

Within the article, Carr doesn’t just provide specific examples of changes in the way society functions, but he more importantly conveys a sense of urgency towards the way people think. Rather than filling our minds up with information we come across, the human race is relying more and more on technology and the internet to be our “brains”. Carr points out that our dependence on technology is depleting our intelligence and turning it into artificial intelligence. Deep reading goes hand in hand with deep thinking, and the ways of the world nowadays are changing and moving in a direction opposite from this. Carr’s words speak to the reader of this article and seem to urge that person to examine their tendencies. Technology is useful in so many ways, but the manner in which we are using it could ultimately be making us stupid. He wrote this article to present his thoughts obviously, but more importantly to send a message that society is overly reliant on the technology we have come to take for granted. When writing a research paper, one doesn’t really consider where they would be without the internet, but more than likely they would be lost and incapable of efficiently composing such a paper. This amenity however, seems to be inhibiting the brain power of us as humans.