Paper 1 Draft

TECHNOLOGY IS NOT MAKING US STUPID

CASSONDRA BAILEY

ENC204 EFFECTIVE WRITING

8 SEPTEMBER, 2020
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PAPER 1 DRAFT

All my life I have heard it said that the machines are going to take over the world

someday. We have spent all this time, energy, and money on advancing our technology and

reaching new heights when it comes to what we can do without actually needing to do anything

on our own. We have introduced new technologies into the world, gotten rid of old ones, and

improved those that were once old. Technology has never stopped advancing, even since the

prehistoric times when man first made fire. Today, technology is an absolute necessity. School,

work, and social lives thrive off of it, and most everyone cannot imagine life without the

advanced technology that we have today. In Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making us

Stupid?” he argues that, because of our heavy reliance on it, technology is making us stupid.1 Or,

more specifically, Google is making us stupid. He argues that we no longer use our brains to

create, store, and interpret information, but now we simply use our internet connection to think

for us. We no longer have the need to perform these basic functions that they claim make us

intelligent, therefore, we lose the ability to perform these tasks. While our lack of completing

simple, tedious tasks is absolutely a phenomenon going on in modern times, this does not make

us any less intelligent. We are still able to perform these baseline functionality tasks; we simply

do not need to spend the time performing them when we could be better off spending that time

on the higher level, more critical thinking that comes when we have the information we need that

we obtained from a quick search on the internet. Google and technology are not making us

stupid; they are, in fact, enabling us to spend our time more wisely on more critical tasks that

2
1
Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” in They Say I Say, (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2012) p.424
rely on the baseline tasks that are performed more quickly and more efficiently when we have

access to these tools.

Technology allows us to keep the same train of thought without being sidetracked by

needing to read an entire book to get the specific information we are looking for. Just because it

allows us to think quicker does not mean it is making us dumber. A large part of Carr’s argument

against search engines is that they are handicapping people into not needing to spend the time

reading a book or an article in its entirety because they can easily just skim the article to get the

information that they need. Carr argues that this habit is slowly taking away our capacity to focus

on reading for more than a few minutes at a time. In his article “Is Google Making us Stupid” he

explains that these search engines are impairing the public’s ability to think on their own, or, “…

chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation."2 Because it is teaching people

a new way to think. It is leading them to think quickly and in a shallow manner, because that is

how the internet thinks, instead of taking the time to think slowly and deeply, in Nicholas Carr's

words, "Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a

Jet Ski."3 This is absolutely a phenomenon that has been slowly taking place over the last few

decades, but this does not mean that we are dumber for it. Intelligence includes the ability to

interpret, process, and output information at a high level. This does not include the basic

information that is searched when someone pulls out their phone for a quick Google search. The

information that we pull from these search engines is turned into something much deeper and

more meaningful when it is used in day to day conversations and debates. Not feeling the need to

do the basic interpreting does not mean we can no longer do the higher level application.

2
Ibid., 426
3
Ibid.
 In his initial introduction to his article, Carr explains that he has experienced this

phenomenon firsthand. He says that he can no longer focus on books for a long period of time,

and he has a much harder time finishing books that he once flew through. Carr argues that his

way of thinking has changed, and that this is a bad thing, "My mind isn't going - so far as I can

tell - but it's changing. I'm not thinking the way I used to think."4 But his main argument is that

he cannot focus on long pieces of literature the same we he used to. This is only one small piece

of what it means to be intelligent, and is not a necessary piece either. You do not need to be able

to read long books in order to be intelligent. Many people have been illiterate and still made huge

strides for humanity. For example, Henry Ford’s associates all agreed that he never really wrote

books. People would write books in his name, he would approve, and they would name him as

the author. His peers urged him to read important articles, but they said that he merely skimmed

the headlines and moved on with his groundbreaking work. His work has changed the world

forever. This shows that we do not need to know how to do the basics in order to think at a high

level. Thinking is a different process than reading and writing, meaning that your mind can grow

freely at a different rate than your reading and writing does.

Another one of Carr’s points is that technology is changing the way he thinks. It is

creating new pathways in his brain, and letting the old ones die. This is a crucial part in the

growth of technology. Out with the old and in with the new, as the saying goes. We should not

be afraid of the change that comes along with a rapidly advancing community. Just because

something is new and different does not mean that it is inferior to what once was. These new

4
Ibid., 424
ways of thinking have been the cornerstone of growth in this country for centuries, and have

been the driving force to push manning forward. A published study of online research habits,

conducted by academics from University College London, is mentioned in Carr's article. He

quotes from the article, "It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense;

indeed there are signs that new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'power browse'

horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems

that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense."5 Carr argues that this move away

from the "traditional way of reading" is what is causing us to lose intellect, that because we

cannot focus on a long article for the entirety of the discussion is a step backwards for mankind. I

argue that this is just the opposite. Being able to understand the point of an article or story

without needing to read every word on the page opens doors for all new kinds of efficiency and

time management. This allows a researcher to go through several articles and pull the

information that they need -- not the miscellaneous fluff that comes along with a lot of stories

and books -- and move onto the next source of information. 

There are others who agree with Carr and are willing to discuss this topic with new

information. Carr references Joseph Weizenbaum's book Computer Power and Human Reason:

From Judgement to Calculation where Weizenbaum uses the clock as another example of

technology nullifying our need for intellect.6 He explains that we no longer make decisions for

ourselves based on our senses. We eat, bathe, sleep, work, and even think when the clock says to.

We no longer listen to our stomach when it says it's hungry, or our eyes when they start to sag, or

our brains when they cry out for a new mental challenge. We no longer think for ourselves, or

5
Ibid., 428
6
Ibid., 431
use the senses that God has given us, we merely obey a clock, and live the way the clock tells us

to live. You could look at it like this, or you could simply see that a clock is just another tool we

use to ensure a manageable schedule and lifestyle. It motivates us by giving us a

deadline, and pushes us to get as much done in a day as we can. It keeps us in check by

reminding us to eat and bathe instead of going day in and day out without the basic tools we need

to think critically. Again, it is just a stepping stone that paved the way for us to reach new

intellectual heights.

As I have mentioned throughout this paper, I strongly disagree with Nicholas Carr’s

argument that Google is making us Stupid. Technology can not be stopped at this point, and

there are many different ways that we can use technology to improve our intelligence. So,

instead of fighting it and falling behind everyone else, find a way to use it to your advantage. Our

brains still have the ability to store, manipulate, and interpret information, Google and

technology is just a source that takes the limits off of just how much information we can reach in

a lifetime.
 WORKS CITED

Carr, Nicholas. Is Google Making us Stupid?, The Atlantic magazine,