24 pages • 48 minutes read
Nicholas CarrIs Google Making Us Stupid?
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
At this point in history, was Carr correct or incorrect about his predictions about the Internet’s ill effects on human cognition? Cite scientific data and the work of other theorists that have emerged since the original publication of the essay to corroborate your perspective.
Use data and scholarship about the science of Internet advertising to prove or disprove Carr’s central assertions. How has internet advertising affected human cognition and/or social organization? Are these effects aligned with Carr’s assertions?
Locate an essay that rebukes Carr’s perspective. Write a comparative essay that debates the merits and shortcomings of each argument.
Do you agree with Carr’s argument in his essay? Use direct citations of the text, your own academic and/or scientific citations, as well as personal anecdotes to support your point of view.
How has the Internet changed since the original publication of Carr’s essay? Do those changes affect the credibility of the essay’s central arguments? Parse specific developments in the technological capabilities and role of the Internet to support your answer.
Examine Carr’s analogy of the Internet to the printing press. Does his analogy fail to take into account key differences between the printing press and the Internet? If so, name those key differences, and explain how those differences downgrade the effectiveness of his analogy.
Perform a style- and literary device-driven analysis of Carr’s argument. How do Carr’s literary conventions bolster or detract from the persuasiveness and/or credibility of his argument?
