Rhetorical Analysis: Is Google Making USupid?

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In this era dominated by technology, where information is readily available at a click, Nicholas Carr’s article attempts to discuss the effect of humanity’s reliance on the internet. While “is Google making us stupid?” initially disguises itself as an article on the effects of internet usage on the mind, Carr’s lack of statistical data severely undermines his claims. His reliance on personal experiences and usage of quotations from other authors without very much analysis renders the article inadequate. Initially, Carr begins his article by quoting lines from the movie “A Space Odyssey”: “‘Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. You are the best. Will you stop, Dave?’ So [,] the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene.” Although I have not seen this movie myself, this quote and a quick watch on YouTube shows me what he is referencing, using these quotes Carr tries …show more content…

From these first few sentences it should have been clear that the rest of the article was going to be an opinion piece, yet I read on, hoping, and perhaps praying that these sentences were just a hook and a fluke. Unfortunately, as I read more and more of the article, I seemed to catch myself becoming more and more irritated at how an article with the title, “is Google making us stupid?” contained nothing more than the thoughts of a man who had grown up at a time when technology was still very new and it seemed to me that he was trying his very best to keep his world from changing by any means necessary, very repeatedly Carr uses personal experiences to justify how he believes technology is “making us stupid”. One instance of this can be found within the article when he explains, “My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three

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