“Dave, stop, will you” (Carr 1). He starts off illustrating an eerie scene from the 2001 movie Space Odyssey. This part of the article is obviously fictional, but does a good job of leading up to his next point. He discusses that he feels like his mind is being influenced by advancing technologies. He states that even as a writer his mind struggles to keep focused on a book, something that is new to him. He blames this on the internet, which he describes as “The perfect recall of silicone memory” (2). He uses his friends as examples, stating that “..many are having similar experiences” (2). While impossible to tell if this fiction or not, one can reason that he’s most likely stating fact. Carr does bring up facts from a London study where results suggest that internet readers aren’t reading in traditional methods and that they do not absorb the text that they are reading. Following that though, he sneaks his opinion that “We are what we read” (3). Carr then does bring up a conversation that he had, stating an interesting fact of how reading is not part of our genes like how speech is. That is a very interesting fact and that suggests that the way we read can be influenced just like other habits. He brings in quotes from other professors he has talked to and mentions how the human brain can still be molded even at older ages. To help support his discussion, he brings up a very interesting part of history. With the invention of the mechanical clock, people minds were changed into thinking in mathematical sections of time. That people “…eat, work, sleep, rise, we stopped listing to our senses and started obeying the clock” (4). When identifying the argument in Carr’s article, some interesting ideas and evidence surface.
I would say that the main point of this essay is to stir discussion how the internet may have negative effects on the human mind. He states how his own memory is being affected by speeding on the internet jumping from one page to the next. He further supports that his reading habits that used to be natural for him have become struggles. He argues that the zip lining across the internet is changing how we read and how we interpret text. He backs this up from evidence from studies performed in London that suggests that people exhibit “”a form of skimming activity” and “…read no more than one or two pages of an article or a book before they would bounce out to another site” (3). Another point he tries to argue is that technology is taking part of forming in his thoughts. He proposes that it has “changed from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style” (4). The pattern of cause and effect is also apparent in his writing, starting from the very beginning.
Early in the essay, Carr suggests that he is having trouble reading. He then argues that the way we use the internet has hindered his attention, and that he is not alone with this problem. This claim becomes more valid after he references some of his colleagues and reinforces his argument and thesis. One of the most compelling examples of cause and effect is found later in the essay. Carr introduces the idea of the mechanical clock, a piece of technology that arose in the 14th century. Carr states, “…the clock disassociated time from human events and helped create the belief in an independent world of mathematically measurable sequences” (4). That is a startling concept and definitely goes along the line of cause and effect, suggesting that the clock completely affected the way our minds operate. The last pattern of tone can be found throughout the paper.
Carr’s tone seems to have a concerned feel to it, and rightfully should. This can be found by analyzing some of the examples that he gives, and how he seems almost nervous about what the future holds. A good example is when he begins to talk about the internet again. Carr says, “The internet, an immeasurably powerful computing system, is submersing most of our other intellectual technologies” (5). He uses words such as “immeasurably”, “powerful”, and “submersing” that suggests that the internet is truly a threat to us. His purpose seems to get a message across, saying to be aware of how the internet is shaping us.
Carr suggests that we should be skeptical of his skepticism, but he brings up some very interesting concepts. Adverse effects of the internet are undoubtedly out there, and Carr does a good job of getting that across. He uses patterns of fact and fiction, cause and effect, evidence and tone and leaves the reader with much to think about. His paper works because it stirs up thoughts about the relationship between technology and us and backs it up correctly. Maybe we shouldn’t be concerned about Google making us stupid, but how as technology shapes and contorts the way our minds work.
Link to original article
You are welcome to visit our brilliant writing company in order to get rid of your academic writing problems once and for all! Evolution Writers
ReplyDelete