Samantha Hammack
Dr. Turner
English 111-011
24 October 2012

Rhetorical Analysis of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
Nicholas G. Carr has written an abundance of articles about technology. Some of his work includes: Does It Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, and The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google. One of Carr’s achievements, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” smoothly persuades the reader to believe that the Internet is taking over the human mind. The article’s title brings a tough question to mind for readers. By using a familiar movie scene and arguments embedded with relatable analogies, imagery and metaphors; Carr casually and acceptably leads his audience to a reasonable …show more content…

Carr uses the anecdotes of Bruce Friedman and Scott Karp to appeal the reader’s emotions through the use of pathos. Karp admits to having stopped reading books, and although that does not seem strange at the least considering how few people read books frequently on a daily or weekly basis nowadays, it is unusual in that Karp had been a Literature major while in college. Karp suggests that his lack of desire to read may have occurred because the way he thinks has changed, which is significant to Carr’s argument. Carr uses this anecdote to evoke disbelief and skepticism in the reader.
Although there is an abundant use of both pathos and logos in the article, there is barely any ethos presented in the article at all. The slightest bit of ethos presented to the readers is when Carr represents his own experience to the audience. Carr also often tends to present material in his article that seems as if his claims are backed by his own results. He further hurts the ethos in his essay by relying so heavily on his own experience as the circumstances as the average experience by every day people.
Of the three rhetorical devices, ethos is the most crucial to an argument. If the author of an article does not provide decent amount of ethos in his article, readers will not be able to distinguish if the article is of value or whether the ideas presented have any substance. Although Carr provides