Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Rosie Charles
AP Eng III
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
08/24/09


The question is: is Google making us stupid? The answer to this question is in the article that I was required to read. In this article there are many major points that the author relates to the question. What the author does to prove his point is to use some of the rhetoric techniques that I have learned in class. He uses logos, ethos, great diction, and relates and recognizes his audience.


Logos is the use of logic to prove or explain a point. In this article, logos are most definitely used. Most of everything that the author puts into this speech is true. For instance, “The internet is subsuming most our other intellectual technologies. It’s becoming our map and clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV.” If you analyze this quote and pick it apart, there isn’t much, if anything, that you can say is not true. All the things listed are things that we do use on the computer. Even though we also use these things away from the computer, there seems like there is a slim possibility that these things aren’t really a necessity anymore. Another way the author uses logos is by having all the different quotes from different esteemed peoples, such as professor, doctors, writers, and even the distinctly known Socrates. Socrates was said to “fear that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful””. By having a quote such as this, it not only establishes logos as being logical, but it also establishes ethos.


As I was taught, ethos is the placement of credibility. Credibility in a speech and/or article is, in my eyes, very crucial. Not only does it help lengthen the time the article holds the readers attention, but it also gives a sense of truth to the matter or topic. As stated in the paragraph above, having someone as notable as Socrates relating to what the author is trying to represent is most incredibility establishing ethos. When most people hear the name Socrates, they think Aristotle or Plato. When they hear these names, they automatically think wisdom. Wisdom is always a message an author would want to send to the reader/audience. It let’s them know that the author has a feel for what he or she is writing or speaking about. Another example of ethos in this article is the many doctors and writers the author has quotes or excerpts from. This also makes a sense of comfort to the audience.


“Maybe I’m just a worrywart.” This is a perfect example of the type of great diction in this article. By saying the preceding quote, the author allows the audience to think for themselves. There is no longer a sense of urgency to understand and agree to what the author is portraying. This is a good thing. I know, as a reader, I never like to read something and feel like the author is too aggressive or not understanding enough of the opposite side of his or her argument. As like other things in the article, this type of diction gives the reader a sense of independence, and who doesn’t love that? I also picked up that the author uses the pronoun “I” a lot. I think this betters the article in two different ways. In one way, it relates the author to the subject and the audience. By using “I”, it lets the audience know that the author has noticed and been thru, so to speak, what he is speaking upon. Secondly, it gives a hint of pathos by relating to the audience.


In my opinion and perspective, relation and recognition of audience is the key to a good and well written article. In this article, the author has an amazing sense of audience. One way in which I can tell that the author’s primary focus was the audience is the way the article was written. Even though the article was written in first person, the diction of the article made seems as though the author was speaking directly to you with all his information. Also, all the stated above reasons in one way or another relate to audience. Diction, pathos, ethos, and logos, are all elements that hold a readers attention and all for different reasons.


Is Google making us stupid? That question is left for you to decide. Based on all the information and logic here in the awesomely written article, I say yes and no. Yes because the internet itself is taking away from people doing things for themselves, by themselves. The internet isn’t really leaving a sense of independence or self help. No because even though we are becoming lazy and way too comfortable, the last thing Google is doing is making us stupid. Google supplies people with everyday information that can help solve problems, answer questions, and who knows whatever else. What I hope you don’t fail to realize is that Google is still a source of information, and how can informative information ever be a “bad” thing?