How Do I Write An Abstract?

The controlling idea of Nicholas Carr's article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" is that as new forms of technology and media are developed they change the way we think, read and write. Google puts a great wealth of information at our fingertips which makes us lazy and incapable of reading a lengthy book for information. Carr sums up this argument with the following metaphor: "Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski". Before Google he had to slowly search through books the way a scuba diver slowly takes in their surroundings under water. But now he skips over them without being able to take in the details, the way Jet Skis move too fast over the surface to get a clear view of what's underneath. He also says the net is "chipping away at [his] capacity for concentration and contemplation".

Besides Google and the internet dumbing people down he also feels that writing implements influence the way we form our thoughts. Carr cites Nietzsche's switch to using a typewriter to prove this point. After making the switch Nietzshce's writing became more terse than usual, the same way modern changes in communication associated with the internet make us prefer to read and write in shorter increments. Concerns about switches in media date all the way back to the invention of the printing press when many people believed it would bring about the end of society.

In the article, Carr assumes that the readers are educated, and have familiarity with Google, even if they themselves do not use it extensively themselves. He also assumes that many readers may be in the same boat as him, that is to say, are also having trouble concentrating on reading the more time they spend online.