ARGUMENT ESSAY

Argument Essay

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Argument Essay

Introduction

Technology is making progress by leaps and bounds in the recent era. Humans have been taking advantage of various progressions of the technology for a very long time, in fact, from the time wheel was invented. There are a number of inventions that technology has provided to mankind. Modern technology especially needs to be mentioned in this respect, as it has provided a much greater number of inventions to modern humans. These inventions and services have brought a huge revolution in the lives of humans. These inventions have made the pace of the work incredibly fast and brought efficiency in the routine of life.

One of the greatest inventions of modern technology, and most probably the most useful one, is the internet. The Internet has connected the whole world and reformed this big planet into a small global village. The Internet consists of many components but the most vital and helpful component is a worldwide component. World Wide Web helps to find and publish information online. One of the most important and integral parts of this World Wide Web is a search engine. A search is a program that searches and identifies whether the typed characters or keywords are present in its database or not (Wright, 2005). It especially finds the particular sites that are related to the keywords or the characters that the user wants to search and presents the most appropriate results.

There are a number of search engines available over the internet, but in the current times, Google is the top-ranked search engine present over the internet. There are a number of people who like to use Google for their search needs of information over the internet. Many people consider it a very useful program and think that Google provides quality results and relevant information regarding the results of the search. However, there is a certain group of people, who think that Google is a complete waste of time and does not help its users at all. One such person is Nicholas Carr. Nicholas Carr, in 2008, wrote an article in “The Atlantic” magazine, in order to present his views that how Google was proving more harmful than beneficial for the general public. The article was titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and was published in the July August issue or year 2008 (Carr, 2008). However, I would like to disagree with Nicholas Carr. I think Google is not making us stupid or fool but only trying to help us, in fact, the whole human race. Google has proved to be an extremely efficient and effective tool for searching and providing valuable information in times of need.

Discussion

Nicholas Carr, in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains” presented various arguments and evidence to back up his views regarding the inefficiency of the famous search engine, Google. The author of “The Shallows” and “The Glass Cage: Automation and Us” has pinpointed from many aspects that the lasts technology, especially Google is proving to be more of a headache for the human race than a blessing. These arguments were based both on the technological; aspects as well as the physical and psychological aspects.

Nicholas Carr may have presented his arguments in the light of extended research and comprehensive study but still, there are certain loopholes that cannot be left unanswered. The noted author may think that modern technology especially the internet and Google, has started controlling out brains, but the fact that cannot be denied is that Google has made the life of humans much easier. Google is loaded with a bundle of information and provides the most relevant data to its users.

In addition to this, the market position of the well-reputed search engine is a piece of undoubted evidence for its authenticity and performance. The well-developed search engine jumped in the market when there were already two powerful giants working in the area of internet search, Yahoo and MSN. Google tried to develop its services at such a crucial time when there was already a great competition in the market, but its amazing service and the extraordinary performance won the hearts of the internet users and they shifted swiftly to the new service provider. Currently, Google is ranked among the top choice of internet surfers and 99 out of 110 users prefer to use Google for their internet search needs.

In addition to all this, Nicholas Carr argues that the latest facilitation of technology, especially the internet has made people lazy. People now hesitate to get up and search for the things that they need. There were times when people used to make an effort for searching the information; they used to visit libraries and search volumes of books and encyclopedias, but now the situations have changed. People are becoming unindustrious, as they can find the required information just by sitting on their couch. Hence, they refuse to be physically active and visit libraries. This is a dangerous trend as firstly; it is reducing the walk or footfall in the libraries as well as reading habits in people. People are now less interested in reading books as compared to the earlier times the passion for reading is reducing.

I find this argument completely baseless, as, in my personal opinion, the internet has not only given a hike to the passion for reading among the users but also provided multiple opportunities and platforms to the users to read. In fact, the users can easily read the books online without having to carry the books physically with them (Grabe, & Christopherson, 2005). Moreover, the readers can easily share their reviews about the books on various social media platforms, which the other readers can also view and decide whether to read the book or not.

Internet technology has also provided a number of facilitation to its users in terms of shopping. In ancient times, people had to meet the stores or shops physically and select a product. Sometimes, it would take a lot of effort and travel to reach the store if the person is living in the countryside or a suburban area. The Internet has reduced this fatigue; the user can easily sit in the comfort of his home or office and order anything online. From huge electronics to the smallest pins, a person can easily order anything online and get their product delivered to their doorstep within no time (Vaske, 2011). This facility is also available on grocery shopping and this practice is known as online shopping. It has saved the time and effort for travel as well as proved to be extremely fuel-efficient. Hence, it is proven on one more front that the internet is not a curse but a blessing for humans.

Nicholas Carr presents another argument in his article that no matter what the website, whether it’s Google or any other, every website is heavily loaded with ads and marketing images nowadays. One of another annoyance that the internet users face while browsing through various websites is pop-ups. These little windows keep popping up while a user is trying to open a new website or a new web page. Carr emphasizes the fact that these marketing images, ads or pop-ups prove to extremely annoying while a user is using the internet. These ads, in addition to being annoying, also prove to be very distracting. These ads divert the attention of the reader. This point is valid to some extent but, as there is a solution to every problem, this issue also comes with certain remedies. There are a number of ad blockers and pop-up blockers available over the internet that can be installed either on the computer or the mobile phone that help to block unwanted ads and pop-ups (Fricker, & Schonlau, 2002). A user can easily find these various pop-up blockers or ad-blockers on the web store or play store.

Conclusion

Hence, in a nutshell, it can be concluded that the internet has proven to be a great blessing for making instead of a curse. It has provided a number of facilities to its users and made life much easier for them. Contrary to the misconceptions that the internet has reduced the passion for the reading and the number of book readers has reduced due to it, the internet has provided an increased number of opportunities to buy books or read them online. There are a number of websites that also allow the readers to read these books online. On the other hand, the internet has also eased the process of shopping and provided many opportunities for its users to purchase products online. There are many other fronts on which the internet has proven to be beneficial for the human race. Hence, the arguments presented by Nicholas Carr in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains” stands to be baseless or of less value as compared to the benefits provided by technology.

References

Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stupid?. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 107(2), 89-94.

Fricker, R. D., & Schonlau, M. (2002). Advantages and disadvantages of Internet research surveys: Evidence from the literature. Field methods, 14(4), 347-367.

Grabe, M., & Christopherson, K. (2005). Evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of providing lecture notes: The role of internet technology as a delivery system and research tool. The Internet and higher education, 8(4), 291-298.

Vaske, J. J. (2011). Advantages and disadvantages of internet surveys: Introduction to the special issue. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 16(3), 149-153.

Wright, K. B. (2005). Researching Internet-based populations: Advantages and disadvantages of online survey research, online questionnaire authoring software packages, and web survey services. Journal of computer-mediated communication, 10(3), JCMC1034.