Running Head: CARR: AN EVIDENCE CRITIQUE

Nicholas Carr: An Evidence Critique

Paige Dahle
FDENG 201

CARR: AN EVIDENCE CRITIQUE

Nicholas Carr: An Evidence Critique

Nicholas Carrs (2011) article titled Is Google Making Us Stupid? evaluates and
examines the impact technology has had on knowledge and intelligence. He uses a number of
sources, although the credibility and relativity of those sources is questionable, and he strengthens
his argument by giving opposing views.
In the article, Carr references twenty outside sources, only nine of which are credible
sources on the subject, and many of which are only relevant when put side-by-side with another
source. Several of these sources include Maryanne Woolf, James Olds, Daniel Bell, Frederick
Winslow Taylor, Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, (Carr, 2011, p. 62). These few sources
are credible between their education, achievements, and their relevance to the topic. Maryanne
Woolf, a developmental psychologist, one of the few sources that Carr uses multiple times
throughout the article, discusses the psychology and process of reading (2011, p. 63). James Olds,
a professor of neuroscience explains how the brain is pliable (Carr, 2011, p. 64). This is only
relevant in the context that Carr follows with Daniel Bell, a sociologist, who claims that eventually
we begin to take on the qualities of those [intellectual] technologies (2011, p. 64). Taylors study
of efficiency and systematic organization is only pertinent because for the first time in the article
Carr specifically mentions Google through its practice of Taylorism (2011, p. 65). Carr continues
to expose Google through the chief executive, Eric Schmidt, and the founders, Sergey Brin and
Larry Page. Schmidt completes this Tayloristic idea by saying that Google.is a company thats
founded around the science of measurement and it is striving to systematize everything it does
(Carr, 2011, p. 65). Brin and Page take this theory further, with the goal to turn their search
engine into an artificial intelligence (2011, p. 66).
Carr seeks to strengthen his argument by giving the opposing argument that there is always
a countertendency to expect the worst of every new tool or machine (2011, p. 66) who cannot

CARR: AN EVIDENCE CRITIQUE

always imagine the myriad of blessings that come with such progressions (2011, p. 67). He
supports this counterargument by quoting Socrates through Plato about the written word, and
Hieronimo Squarciafico, the Italian humanist who was apprehensive to the development of the
printing press (Carr, 2011, p. 67). However, while he gives the opposing view, he does not address
how the internet may have its benefits as well beyond his quick comment about how research
which once required days.can now be done in minutes (Carr, 2011, p. 61).
Carr supports his arguments through a multitude of sources, all of which are semi-credible
or relevant when put near another source. Carr has whole sections of his article that are purely his
own ideas and experiences, and others which only quote source after source after source. In these
sections, he is seldom to use his own ideas to synthesize the ideas between each source, but leaves
the reader to jump around from source to source, as though they were reading on the internet,
leaving them with the impression that they have just completed their own Google search, complete
with videos, blogs, university studies, and e-books.
(Word Count: 520)

CARR: AN EVIDENCE CRITIQUE

References
Carr, N. (2011). Is Google Making Us Stupid? In D. Hammond, M. K. Hartvigsen, A. Papworth,
& R. Seamons, The Way of Wisdom (pp. 61-68). Rexburg, Idaho: Brigham Young
University- Idaho.