In this post, our online custom paper writers have written a sample comparative article critique on whether search engines, such as Google, advance our abilities and make us smarter or flatten our own intelligence. This sample essay paper is intended to help college students learn how to write better article critiques.
Sample Comparative Article Critique: Conversations About Technology
Does our use of search engines, such as Google, advance our abilities and make us smarter or does not it flatten our own intelligence?
The modern world has been marked with colossal technological advancement. Every evolvement in technology has been marked by revolutionary changes in the way we do things. Technological advancement has had positive and negative impacts on human beings (Cadwalladr, 2016). One of the key revolutions of technology is the invention of the internet which has facilitated search engines, such as Google (Cadwalladr, 2016). The Internet has integrated itself into the entertainment industry, education infrastructures, and social interaction over social media platforms. Like any other industry, the current upward trend of technology usage presents a debate question. “Does our use of search engines, such as Google, advance our abilities and make us smarter or does not it flatten our intelligence?” The main purpose of this essay is to examine the advantages and disadvantages of technological advancement. In reality, the benefits of search engines are more than their flaws.
Google has made us more stupid
Nicholas Carr’s article affirms that technology such as Google has made us more stupid. (Carr, 355). The whole article displays his view on technology where he doubts the many merits that have been associated with its advancement. His thesis focuses on how technology is fooling the minds of people and affecting their cognitive potentials (Carr, 355). He uses himself as an example and asserts that he used to be an excellent reader, but present he cannot concentrate for long. Carr says that “Concentration starts to drift after two or three pages”. Technology is addictive and makes one lazy and as it changes the perception in which we do certain things in society. Deeper reading and analysis of articles or books have been substituted by scanning and skimming (Carr, 355).
Another example provided by Carr is how the internet influenced the writing skills of Friedrich Nietzsche. Before, Friedrich purchased a typewriter his writing skills were excellent. Technology has automated things and invented search engines such as Google, which has made it easier to access valuable information compared to the traditional method of reading articles and journals to search for the necessary information. Google is striving to transform its search engines into artificial intelligence (Carr, 355). Although the invention is excellent, Carr is against it. The move of automated machines will replace human beings from all economic infrastructures. Throughout the paper, Nicholas is skeptical about technological advancements.
Search Engines Help Conduct Better Research
Trent Batson takes a different direction by thinking that Nicholas’s perception of technology is unrealistic (Batson, 2). Trent Batson takes a hard hit to Carr by saying that he is a skeptic person who is not ready to change and the latter feels that technology will downgrade our academic infrastructure. The two have different opinions about the impacts of technology on society. In his argument, Trent Batson says that technology is a very resourceful tool because it provides a pool of research facts to students (Batson, 2). It is much better than the way research was conducted in the past. He differs from Carr, who maximizes his thoughts on the negative part of technology. Nicholas has been criticizing the laziness instilled into students by technology by providing everything they need. Trent Batson stated that “Books have become an anomaly, not the web” (Batson, 2). He elaborates his stance by explaining that books are expensive to produce and they consume much time. Besides, he argues that the current spectrum of books is unethical because they have failed to incorporate oral learning techniques in their context. I disagree with Batson’s view, that books have become irrelevant (Batson, 2). According to my books and technology are inseparable. Being a student, I still use technology to purchase online books. I think the two are critical in imparting knowledge.
Decentralized Sources of Information
Moises Naim claimed that two beliefs impact modern thinking, technology, and the social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook (Moises Naim, 14). Of the two, technology is the most powerful tool that distracts journalism. He argued that modern governments use the power of the internet to sieve information and decide what should reach the people. With the dramatic evolution of technology, it is hard for governments to control information. Internets dictate censorship (Moises Naim, 14). Naim argued that technology has been transformative in mature democracies. Internet and censorship are unique and parochial elements.
Technology increases Cognitive Reasoning
Clive Thompson in his article “ Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better”, says technology is a tool that increases cognitive reasoning. Thompson demonstrates using a renowned chase player, Garry Kasparov. The star participated in a 6 game tournament where they were competing over the computers and lost. Thompson says that Kasparov viewed that “each might benefit from the other’s peculiar powers” (Thompson, 2013). The defeat opened a new chapter as he pioneered online amateur chess games. Nowadays, chess players can sharpen their skills by playing against computers. Thompson used the online amateur chase games to indicate how technology can perfect competence. Also, Thompson says that editors and article writers can rely on the internet to conduct researches and publish quality work (Thompson, 2013). The internet database search engines provide them with a viable opportunity to improve their writing skills. Throughout his articles, Thompson is optimistic that technology such as Google perfects our abilities and makes us smarter.
Ethos, Logos, and Pathos Analysis
The discussed authors provide different opinions on whether technology is for worse or better. They applied logos, pathos, and ethos to express their views. They used ethos by providing evidence-based proof of their views. In his article, Carr presented all articles published by scholars and examined human-computer interactions (Carr, 355). Thompson’s articles exhibit the same mode of presentation. The experience of Garry Kasparov is an example of ethos in his work. He explains how Garry Kasparov’s eventually collaborated with technology (Thompson, 2013). Besides; in their conclusion, they provide counterarguments of their opinions. Thompson then proceeds to provide logical reasoning behind technology’s benefit to humanity. As he concludes Carr says that “You should be skeptical of my skepticism towards technology” (Carr, 355). This is a clear indication that he understands the benefits of technology. Thompson on his part argued that psychological fears are warranted (Thompson, 2013). Hence, the two opposing sides structured their arguments in the same way.
Tone Analysis and Critique
The articles for technology make us smarter or worse shows the disparity in their tones. Comparing the two, Thompson was more passive while Carr was assertive in his arguments. In his argument, Carr is assertive of his points whereas Thompson is more passive. Carr in his article uses external sources such as experiments and research to provide evidence of how the internet flattens our intelligence (Carr, 355). Nicholas Carr used technological advancements as a metaphor to show how technology can impact society. Contrary, Thompson uses logical evidence to present his side of view.
Depth Analysis in the Articles
Finally, the analyzed articles provide a depth analysis of the question “Does our use of search engines, such as Google, advance our abilities and make us smarter, or does not it flatten our intelligence?” My stance on this debate is that Google is advancing our abilities and making us smarter. One of my issues with Carr is that “do all materials we search from Google make us stupid? I think that when we search for information from the internet and read in-depth it analytically cracks our criticality and increases our intelligence (Arkorful et al. 40). My point is that search engines such as Google saves time. As a student, Google helps me to manage my time well and free myself to do other assignments. Carr’s arguments portray fear, he fears that technology is controlling us and making us less active (Hooper et al. 2014). It is a fact that without Google, online learning would have been impossible. Google has promoted learning in the modern world and increased the literacy level in our society. Many students work and do menial jobs to facilitate their school fees and feed their families (Archee Ray, 65). Due to their commitments, they can’t manage normal regular classes; they, therefore, register for online classes. I disagree with Carr because Google makes students innovative as they can do different responsibilities at the same time and perform exceptionally (Archee Ray, 65). Google makes us smarter and sparks us to read and research more.
Counterargument
My counterargument is that Google makes us more stupid. The disadvantages are there as stated by Carr and we cannot ignore (Arkorful et al. 30). I agree with Nicholas Carr that technology affects reading behaviors negatively. It is hard to concentrate because of the frequent distraction by hyperlinks that are unethical. The pop-up adverts on websites make readability difficult (Hooper et al. 2014). Readability on paper is indeed better than on search engines because there are no disturbances Therefore, as we critique Nicholas Carr we should applaud his efforts and stand concerning technology.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the question of whether Google search engines advance our ability and make us smarter or flattens our intelligence remains. The authors Trent Batson, Moises Naim, Clive Thompson, and Nicholas Carr provide different viewpoints about the question. Clive Thompson, Moises Naim, and Trent Batson view that technology increases our ability and makes us better while Nicholas believes it flattens our intelligence. According to my analysis, the merits of the technology outweigh its demerits. The dramatic advancements in technology are implemented to better human lives and increase the efficacy of industrial processes. The artificial intelligence that Carr fears has been invented by human beings that shows that technology does not make us stupid by increases our innovativeness and makes us smarter. Google search engines such as the internet are applying technical knowledge and skills to connect people globally and make the world an interconnected village.
Work Cited
- Archee, Ray. “Is blended learning making us stupid, too?.” Open Journal of Social Sciences 3.09 (2015): 65.
- Arkorful, Valentina, and Nelly Abaidoo. “The role of e-learning, advantages, and disadvantages of its adoption in higher education.” International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning 12.1 (2015): 29-42.
- Batson, Trent. “ePortfolios: Let me count the ways.” Campus technology 1 (2010): 1-3.
- Cadwalladr, Carole. “Google, democracy, and the truth about internet search.” The Guardian 4.12 (2016): 2016.
- Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google making us stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains.” The Composition of Everyday Life, Concise (2015): 355.
- Hooper, Val, and Channa Herath. “Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Impact of the Internet on Reading Behaviour.” Bled eConference. 2014.
- Moisés Naím. “21st-century censorship.” Columbia Journalism Review 53.1 (2015): 14.
- Thompson, Clive. Smarter than you think: How technology is changing our minds for the better. Penguin, 2013.