Is Google Making Us Stupid PDF

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Dr. Murphy, questions and answers for Is Google Making us Stupid?...

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Is Google Making Us Stupid? Questions 1. Identify the sentence(s) constituting Carr’s thesis. How does his thesis answer the questions posed in the title “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr’s thesis is that the internet is tuning our brains and causing changes in thinking and reading habits. In the second paragraph he explains how it has personally affected him to explain his thesis further. His thesis answers the question by explaining how google plays a role in humans not thinking anymore because we have the answer to any question imaginable at our fingertips. His thesis is saying humans don’t have to think deeply anymore about answers to questions due to google. 2. Why does Carr extol the benefits of “deep reading” over the stimulation provided by hyperlinked text? What does “deep reading” of linear test provide that most hyperlinked text does not? (See page 438) Why, according to Carr, do companies such as Google discourage “deep reading”. Deep reading is valuable because we process information and learn it rather than just clicking on a link for an answer. By deep reading our brain absorbs the information rather than reading it and then dismissing it. Carr wants readers to understand the difference between reading something online rather than reading information out of a book. Google discourages deep reading because answers can be found by the click of a button. You don’t have to sort through a long reading to find an answer because of the instant response from google. 3. What evidence does Carr use to support his thesis? (Summarize his evidence). Classify the different types of evidence. Why does Carr admit that “anecdotes alone don’t prove much” (427)? Why use anecdotal evidence if it by itself can not prove much? Carr uses research done by professors and sociologists that tells how the internet has changed humans way of thinking and viewing things. He also uses real examples of people explaining how the internet has changed their thinking and how they rarely read longer articles. He explains how people no longer read and often can’t read things longer than a few paragraphs. He admits anecdotes alone don’t prove much because a few people explaining how the internet has affected them doesn’t represent the population as a whole, some people may be significantly affected while others not so much. He uses this evidence because some people may not realize how they have been affected so by adding real examples readers may be able to relate and realize changes in themselves. 4. What possible precautions to his own position does Carr introduce--and why do you think he does so? How effectively does he counter these objections? Carr believes machines will start doing all the work and thinking while humans just sit back. He explains how because of internet sources we will no longer have to do basic thinking and reading to find our answers.

5. Carr begins this essay by quoting an exchange between HAL and Dave, a supercomputer and an astronaut in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey--and he

concludes by reflecting on that scene. What happens to HAL and Dave, and how does this outcome support his argument? Dave nearly dies due to a computer malfunction and Dave disconnects HAL to save the ship. This supports his thesis by explaining how the machine nearly killed him and the humans are machinelike because of the rise in machines being created. Carr explains how humans today are becoming machinelike which can ruin the world as it almost does in this movie....