By Nicholas Carr emphasizes how the constant use of technology is negatively effecting our learning process. He believes the human brain is gradually deteriorating because we are becoming too dependent on technology to gain quick access to answers that it produces a lack in productivity and the intake of information becomes increasingly difficult due to our short attention span.
Hence, the inhibiting of our ability to think critically. Throughout the article, Carr uses examples of personal experiences and explanations with technology to validate his emotional appeal to the audience. However, his choice of resources and tactics detracts from his overall credibility. At the beginning of Nicholas Carr’s article, he starts off with a quote from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, “Bowman, having nearly been sent to a deep-space death by the malfunctioning machine, is calmly, coldly disconnecting the memory circuits that control its artificial ” brain. “Dave, my mind is going,” HAL says, forlornly. “I can feel it.
I can feel it”‘ (Carr 87). During this scene, Dave Bowman helps the supercomputer HAL disconnect from its artificial brain. Carr stresses how the computer could feel its brain brain being removed while the man disassembles its memory circuits. Through this, we are able to see the resemblance between the man rewiring the computer and how computers have also rewired his own brain. Moreover, he proceeds to deliberate on the use of excessive technology and how it has negatively impacted his thought process. Considering Carr’s motives in his article, he effectively appeals to emotion using pathos for the readers to create thought-provoking questions about technology.
