ENG-111: Comparing Carr and Turkle on Technology's Impact on Thought

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and Sherry Turkle's "How Computers Change the Way We Think," focusing on their arguments about technology's influence on thought processes. The essay highlights Carr's observation of readers skimming through online materials and Turkle's examples of how computers affect various aspects of life, such as privacy and reliance on calculators. It compares the authors' perspectives on distraction, connection, and productivity in the digital age, noting their shared concern about the erosion of independent thinking. While acknowledging the authors' criticisms of technology, the essay also points out their failure to address the positive aspects and offer solutions to the challenges they raise. Desklib offers a wealth of similar academic resources for students.

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Erin McCarty
ENG-111.0005
Professor Bowden
Comparison and Analysis Essay
Both Nicholas Carr, the author of the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and Sherry Turkle,
the author of the article “How Computers Change the way we think” tries to put across the
intuition that technology has greatly changed the way we think and the way we process
information. In particular, Nicholas Carr explains how the internet has influenced the manner in
which we process notes while reading. He notes that in the contemporary setting people have
adopted a new culture where the readers just skim through the materials. This is contrary to what
to earlier culture before the integration of technology where readers took their time to read and
analyze the text. Getting the gist is the main aim of the reader in the contemporary setting as
noted by Nicholas Carr. This can be illustrated by myself as I normally find myself rushing
through a text so that I can find an answer to a query within the shortest time possible.
Looking closely at sherry Turkle’s writings in “How computers change the way we think,” one is
quick to note a listing of various topics, and he continues to elaborate how computers affect each
one of them. A good example is where he lists the topic “Privacy” and extends to explain how
computers have made it open while it remained sheltered in the era before the invention of
computers. He specifically mentions the existence of Facebook and Twitter which have been
exposed to the whole world, but they contain private information of the user. Shery Turkle
continues to narrate about his encounters at an institute of technology. A professor from the
institute connotes the negative role played by the calculators in the life of a student. Students
have abandoned the need to understand the equation problem, but instead, they rush to use

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calculators while others utilize some technologies meant to ruffle numbers and calculate the
equation. This is contrary to the past practice where the student could use a pen and a paper to
calculate and solve an equational problem in step by step process. This kept the student brain at
work. In addition to relying on calculators, Sherry Turkle admits that people are also over-
relying on the usage of computers.
It can be noted that computers have influenced peoples practice in diverse ways. Sherry Turkle
uses an example of a research paper. He observes that the main source for gathering data to
complete a research paper before the advent of computers were books. However, this is not the
case in the current technological setting as people click a given link in a computer, and all the
data in the research paper pops up. This process affects the way of processing information as it
encourages skimming instead of deep reading into the book and getting the best understanding of
the information.
Comparatively looking at the writing of both authors, Nicholas Carr and Sherry Turkle, one can
comprehend the main ideas which they try to bring up. Distraction, connection, and productivity
have characterized the contemporary world. From the readings, it would be correct to connect
computers and digital technology as the main source of these characteristics. The sophistication
of digital materials and gadgets has greatly influenced what one does and accomplishes while
online. The independent thinking that was celebrated before the onset of technology has been
eroded. Technology has become a basic necessity in our thinking and processing of information.
This has extended to affect the people’s socialization process. Since most people have been
exposed to computers, people find it easy to respond to others. This is because, with a computer,
you don’t have to think over what you are responding just because you will have time to fix what
one is about to say. Computers change the thinking process of a person. To understand this

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notion, it is important to look realistically on the difference in communication when the elements
of communication meet face to face and when computers are used as the medium of
communication. The message in that two different scenarios will affirm to the notion that
computers affect the way one thinks.
Both authors, Turkle and Carr, in their distinct writing, come to an agreement that technology
and specifically computers affects the way people understand and process data. They both allude
that one can take the qualities of a computer which can influence the manner in which he reads
and write.
In conclusion and my view, the two authors have failed to address the positive side of technology
critically. They have greatly bashed out the use of technology. The authors also fail to give a
solution to the highlighted problems of technology in view of human thinking and processing of
information.it would have been necessary to suggest some solutions to these challenges.
Work cited
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Yearbook of the National Society for the Study
of Education, vol. 107, no. 2, 2008, pp. 89–94., doi:10.1111/j.1744-7984.2008. 00172.x
Turkle, Sherry. How Computers Change the Way We Think. The Chronicle of Higher Education
(50), 2004.