Carr argues in this article that typical Internet usage habits cause people to have shorter attention spans, have altered thought processes, and have lesser levels of culture and intellect. Carr’s original stance on technology is a solid argument in favor of his thesis. Carr has committed most of his working life to writing and editing periodicals connected to business and technology while being a dedicated outdoorsman from a small Connecticut town who values introspection (Carr, 2008). Carr made his point by combining a robust emotive argument with literary-style metaphors with claims to logic and authority that are common in reasoning in engineering and business journals.
Carr investigates how the Internet affects culture after presenting his thesis and demonstrating that it does affect human cognition. Carr believes that the Internet is obstructing the typically calm and intellectual process of viewing or reacting to media, leading to a shallower, unpleasant experience overall (Carr, 2008). He does this by using solid and startling phrases like “injects” and “digital gewgaws.” As a result, the tone of Carr’s writing appears to change from reflective to intensely worried in this part, in keeping with the argument Carr is attempting to convey. My reaction to this article was emotional and exciting since I tried to feel the author’s feelings about what happened.
Finally, Carr addresses the disquieting possibility that Google might one day create technology that augments or perhaps wholly replaces the human brain with machine learning. By doing this, Carr joins a broader discussion, one that has long been the subject of science fiction novels, about the potential for artificial intelligence and its implications for humans (Carr, 2008). Carr’s core insight, in my opinion, is that the underpinnings of human intellect will deteriorate as Internet impacts change and reprogram people’s cognitive patterns. I clearly understand what the author is talking about because if people think about the information that the author tells, they can understand that a modern person encounters this every day.
Reference
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stupid? Teachers College Record, 110(14), 89-94.