In the past few decades there has been one major resource that has been utilized like no other, the internet. This artificial machine has collected millions of facts and ideas from across the world and has placed them at the fingertips of those with access to the internet. As presented in the text “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, the internet is a very helpful source but has our reliance on the internet handicapped us? Carr attended Harvard University and Dartmouth College and was the executive editor of the Harvard Business Review.  Carr attacks this idea from different points throughout his text but his main argument deals with the notion that the internet is taking away our capacity for concentration and contemplation. The internet is a valuable resource in that it will supply anyone with the knowledge they need for any subject they come across. Now with knowledge this easily accessible people are less inclined to think about what it is they are researching about and they will lose that connection required to fully understand that topic. This great asset is slowly taking the place of certain skills such as concentration and contemplation. In this paper I will address Carr’s main uses of ethos, logos, and exemplification and how they help persuade the reader.

Ethos is a system of writing covering the diction the author uses and how it is credible. Carr claims, “For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for the of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind” (Carr 59). Carr argues that the internet is now the main source of media and information for much of the world. Branching off of that, people will only see the information as the internet pushes it out and it pumps out an unimaginable amount everyday. This alone handicaps us today as we focus only on the surface of all the issues presented from all over the globe. Carr quotes two men by the names of Scott Karp and Bruce Friedman who are both literary scholars. Scott Karp who was a lit major in college stated, “ I’m just seeking convenience, but because they way I think has changed” (Carr 59). And for Bruce Friedman the, who blogs about the use of computers for medical use, outcome is similar. Friedman states, “I have almost lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article… even a blog post of more than four paragraphs is even to much” (Carr 59). Both these examples relate back to Carr’s main point in that the concentration and contemplation of people is going. Furthermore Carr’s use of diction depicting both these examples influences the reader to follow up on his major claim. The way media appears on the Net is how the mind expects to take information in. A fast moving flow of bits. Carr’s use of ethos presents his text as a formal and credible source.

The human brain was thought to be mostly unchangeable once it had matured but it is actually almost indefinitely malleable. Carr provides an example of this by writing of a German media scholar from the late 19th century by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche was losing his sight when he bought a type write and memorized all the keys positions. With this new tool Nietzsche’s writing changed slightly and had become more of a telegram style of writing than a rhetorical style of writing. Carr chose this example so people would connect with it and to show that our minds do adapt to ever growing technology. In this example logos is the present strategy for which Carr makes his argument around. “The process of adapting to new intellectual technologies is reflected in the changing metaphors we use to explain ourselves to ourselves” (Carr 61).  As new technological advancements began to emerge such as computer software we began to think like computers. We have found a way to connect to these new technologies and have moved our thought process to conform with them. This goes back to Nietzsche’s experience with the typewriter, once he had became comfortable with it his writing had changed. Another example Carr uses to is that of a quote from a professor of neuroscience at the George Mason University, by the name of James Olds. Olds states that the adult mind,” Is very plastic… and has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly altering the way it functions” (Carr 60). The statements that Carr provides present the use of logos in his text. The support given and the logic presented in these quotes help create the Carr’s main argument’s logical appeal which is the claim that the internet is taking away from our capacity to concentrate and contemplate. Neuroscientists claim that this change is occurring not just at a top level but down at the biological level.

Our advancement in writing has presented itself as a blessing to most of us. Through the use of exemplification, the argument that a great advancement in writing will take away from our ability to absorb the knowledge surrounding us. Carr provides several quotes from Plato’s Phaedrus,  Socrates claimed that as people began to rely on the written word more and the knowledge that they would normally carry inside their head would, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful” (Carr 63).  People could now read a book on a certain topic and then speak on it but they will never fully achieve the same amount of knowledge from a book as if they were actually performing said topic. “They would be filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom” (Carr 63). As writing became more abundant, especially after Gutenberg’s printing press emerged in the 15th century, the retaining rate of knowledge dove down from what it had been before. As for the abundance of knowledge available on the internet it deals with the same principle. People are googling things to answer questions but they do not know of how that answer came to be and what ideas lay behind it. Carr also provides the idea that, “The human brain is an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive” (Carr 63). This is the idea that Google goes off of and that an artificial intelligence that can process and move information faster than the human mind can is the next step in our technological advancement. Through the use of exemplification Carr opens the reader to the idea of an A.I. but he slowly brings it back to the idea that with the advancement of the internet we are losing much needed cognitive skills. The problems brought up in these examples from the text are apparent all over the world now but it can not be forgotten what the printing press and the internet have done for us.

Carr’s specific use of the strategies ethos, logos, and exemplification worked to further his claim in that following the advancement the internet the cognitive abilities of people have been lacking. People rely on the internet for an astonishing amount of information and everyday activities that without it today we would be severely handicapped. Carr’s logical appeal to this topic, description of it, and the way he illustrated his points carried his overall argument through the text itself. In that the internet has lessened our capacity today to concentrate and contemplate ideas.