Analysis Of Nicholas Carr´s Is Google Making USupid

Google, the Internet, and advanced technology as a whole are disrupting the brain’s normal function and negatively affecting the way that people think. In Nicholas Carr’s publication titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” he contends that the Internet could potentially have damaging effects on cognition and mental functioning that weaken the capability to focus and deliberate (3). As an example, Carr used the company Google to show how its founders aspire to use information to master and control the specific ways in which people search and access resources on the web (7). Before the Internet, people relied on printed works, which offered a more prolonged and deeper way to obtain information. In addition, the Internet is worsening memory, cognitive

This infiltration has significantly increased the dependence of accessing information very quickly (Muther). The effects of social networks, media, and technology have begun to rewire the brain, throwing out the idea that development inside the brain will not change as an adult (Carr 4). For instance, James Olds, a professor of neuroscience at George Mason University, stated that the adult mind “is very plastic” (Carr 4). Nerve cells can make new connections from old ones because the brain is capable of rewiring itself to differ the functions it is performing. The sponge like quality lets it absorb any new information and adjust the way impulses are sent out, changing depending on familiarity and performance (Howard). An effect of the change in brain function is worsening memory. Dr. Erik Fransen, a computer science professor at Stanford University, explains that when the brain is overloaded with continuous material, it becomes difficult to think properly and to rapidly switch thought and behavior (Howard). It becomes increasingly difficult to sift through what is not relevant in order to achieve that goal, slowing down overall mental function. Having information so readily available also affects the perception of how much information is actually being stored in the brain. Society has begun to adapt to a different way of gaining information, one that is very different

Power browsing requires little patience, leaving the reader with the satisfaction of quick fulfillment (Muther). A study done by the Pew Research Center described their analysis of people thirty-five years and younger with hyper connected lives by asserting, “Negative effects include a need for instant gratification and loss of patience” (Muther). The millennial generation has grown this intolerance as technology has advanced at extraordinary speed, resulting in the expectation of immediate connection. Furthermore, the Internet has proven to affect adaptive learning and social intelligence (Welsh). Researcher Gary Small from UCLA concluded that younger generations were losing empathy at the hands of the Internet, though it was making them more useful and resourceful students (Welsh). The brain is a muscle that becomes trained to think and behave based on the information that is provided; this makes humans both stupid and smart. People become smarter because there has been an adaption to gain particular intelligence and to modify thinking patterns, but stupid is the result of poor memory, patience, and immediacy (Welsh). All the advantages the Internet provides leaves many people’s brains addicted and trained to behave in this