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Crystal Chavez

Professor Granillo

English 101

18 October 2018

Mind on Technology: A Rhetorical Analysis on Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid”?

During this time, technology has become a part of the majority’s life to benefit

themselves and those around them. There is no ideal person who founded technology as there are

many people who founded it in different forms. Technology is the application or method of

scientific knowledge used in to create practical purposes. It has evolved over the years to the

point where technology is relied daily on one of its creations called the internet, and it’s now

being used for the good and bad, allowing wide access to majority of the people for different

purposes in their own gain or to others. The internet has become an influence on all ages of the

majority people; however it’s being overused as intended and is having effects on people. In

Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” motivated by his own experience of the

internet, he uses rhetorical devices, ethos to express his credibility and logos in doing research on

credible people on the subjects, to state his argument to the audience that the long use of the

internet is taking a negative effect on the mind. Therefore, Carr is surely right about the internet

is harming people’s minds because recent studies have shown that is negatively impact our

brains.

Carr argues that the internet is responsible for the destruction of one’s concentration,

saying from his own experience of being a victim cause of long use of the internet. He uses ethos

from his personal experience and field research that brightens up his argument to be effective

and display truth out of it, he then proceeds to make his argument stronger in the utilization of
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logos in neuroscience. He uses logos in doing research on credible people on the subjects of

neuroscience and forms of technology inventions throughout history. Nicholas Carr is blaming

the internet for creating a negative impact on people’s minds, not just by ruining concentration

but for damaging the cognition of its contemplation. He wants for others to learn from this that

internet is doing more harm than good to people’s minds.

Carr argues that the internet is responsible for the destruction of one’s concentration,

saying from his own experience of being a victim cause of long use of the internet. It is true that

this occurs which this has happened to myself before and it is quite dramatizing. The internet is

causing diminish in one’s concentration from the use of the internet and no one is informed about

it. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr writes, “The deep reading that used to

come naturally has become a struggle” (425). His point is that the internet is reducing the

concentration of his and will do the same for others, losing one’s given ability of concentration.

Carr’s experience and statement bring up a truth that internet is playing a role in damaging a

person’s mind to concentrate and that this is real in the world and is becoming something out of

the unordinary. Other than his personal experience, there are reports of this happening to people

from the studies found on the brain changing cause of the digital technologies. In the article,

“Digital Technologies are Re-Shaping our Brains” it states, “On the negative side they

encompass difficulty in concentrating on books or long articles, becoming more easily distracted,

impulsiveness, thinking that has a "staccato" quality and lack of concentration in

general”(Keegan). In other words, Sheila Keegan is reporting the effects of digital media on the

brains of those studies that are representing the people. This directly shows the damaging power

of the internet has on the brain. Furthermore, the internet is ruining the mind’s ability to
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concentrate and it is not the only thing in the mind of the brain being as the cognition of its

contemplation is also getting impacted.

Nicholas Carr continues to argue about the negative impact of the mind on another

subject that the cognition of its contemplation is being damaged and he gathers research from

other people who are credible on this subject. He is highly certified and contains credibility in his

work on technology as many of his books are written towards that topic. Carr was able to get an

understanding the idea behind the human mind, which the field is called neuroscience, from

gaining knowledge out of credible sources. In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he

states, James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced

Study at George Mason University, says that even the adult mind “is very plastic” (Carr 430).

Citing this source helps raise Carr’s credibility that he has done part into finding support for his

claim and being able to find sources proves he has knowledge that the mind is a gentle thing that

can be easily damaged. It demonstrates a sense of truth that it isn’t just a little harmless issue, but

an unavoidable one for the matter as it revolves a major study and is reflecting upon the people

in this world. In the article, “You’re Distracted. This Professor Can Help.” it states, “Those

camps duke it out over whether the Internet will unleash vast reservoirs of human potential or

destroy our capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Parry). Marc Perry goes on to say the

results between the internet and the cognition of contemplation are quite destructive or potential

however leans towards the destruction of the people’s contemplation based on the wording and

voice of that text. It demonstrates the further behind of what else is getting damaged other than

one’s concentration. In addition, the minds of the humans are falling apart by the internet and it

fits under Carr’s specialty in technology yet continues further in investigating neuroscience to

build that stance.

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Carr wants to inform people that the internet is harming people’s minds because recent

studies have shown that is negatively impact our brains, and that recent study is the science field

called neuroscience. Neuroscience is the field that the studies in the structure or function of the

nervous system and brain. It focuses behind the field of the mind and not the nervous system as it

plays part to what can found being affected from the use of the internet. In the article, “Is Google

Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr states, “Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form

new ones” (430). It goes on to say that the human brain is capable of being altered by forces or

influences. Neuroscience builds upon that, rejecting that the mind is fixed yet is proven wrong

upon the people’s loss of concentration and contemplation with the use of the internet. The

internet has that much of an influence to structure the nerve cells to break and form new ones,

resulting in the negative impact of the human mind. In the article “Children, Wired: For Better

and For Worse” the authors state, “Of greater interest is our understanding of how technology

impacts regular brain functioning and changes brain organization over time” (Bavelier). It

addresses the technology impacting the brain and how it is becoming an issue in some standards,

but overall it is a bad case bound to worsen overtime. A deep understanding is taken into place to

stance that the internet is a negative impact on the mind and it is not based on the internet usage.

The impact of the brain is revolved around the internet and the long matter the usage one

is on; it still results in the destruction and change of the brain’s concentration and contemplation.

It occurs not just by matter of the length on, but the daily dose one takes with the internet. In the

article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr writes, “I’d spend hours strolling through

long stretches of prose” (425). It indicates how much he spent on the internet, which he isn’t the

only one at that point because majority spends on the internet daily for hours. It has become a

norm to be on the internet for hours; it’s everywhere and has become a want more than its
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intended necessity. Nicholas Carr also states, “I’m not the only one…The more they use the

Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (426). It is amongst

peers that are involved; imagine how many at this point. It revolves around the amount the time

one uses the internet. Given that many spend hours a day, their brains start to change and results

in the lack of focus and reduction of contemplation. The amount of time on internet is a huge to

the negative impact of the brain/mind and results in the loss of concentration and contemplation.

Nicholas Carr argues that the mind is being negatively impacted by the use of technology

called the internet and is motivated by personal experience of being a victim to use rhetorical

modes, ethos and logos. He utilizes ethos to express his credibility of personal experience that

being on the internet harms the mind, and makes use of logos in doing research on credible

people on the subjects. The internet is responsible for the destruction of one’s concentration and

the cognition of its contemplation is being damaged as well. In which it involves the field of

neuroscience to obtain an understanding that it possible due to the fragile brain humans have and

that it is malleable, not fixed like they once claimed it was. It is also the amount one uses the

internet that shows the extent of damage it has done because of the result of one’s loss of

focusing at all. As a matter of fact, Carr convinces me with the provision of evidence and facts

on the internet are harming people’s minds, to further into providing more information of how

technology specifically the internet can result into the negative impact of the human mind and its

abilities. Everyone must be warned of the consequences of this issue and take precaution as it

can be bound with the daily use of it, don’t use the internet daily for hours instead take a day off

and use other sources or forms of entertainment they can offer without any need of the internet.
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Works Cited

Bavelier, D., Green, C. S., & Dye, M. W. G. “Children, wired: For better and for worse”.

Neuron, 67(5), 2010, pp. 692-701. ProQuest.

doi:http://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2069/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.08.035

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?". They Say/I Say, Gerald Graff, Cathy

Birkenstein, Russel Durst, 4, W.W.NORTON, 2018, pp.424-440.

Keegan, Sheila. "Digital Technologies are Re-Shaping our Brains." Qualitative Market

Research, vol. 15, no. 3, 2012, pp. 328-346. ProQuest,

http://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2048/login?url=https://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2457/docview/1

019285897?accountid=38295,

doi:http://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2069/10.1108/13522751211232012.

Parry, Marc. "You're distracted. this professor can help." The Chronicle of Higher Education,

2013, ProQuest,

http://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2048/login?url=https://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2457/docview/1

319470131?accountid=38295.