A Comparison of Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid" and Plato's "Phaedrus" Anonymous College

The change that has been brought about in the fabric of our day to day lives has at the hands of the technological revolution has been extensive, which remains especially so when it comes to the mode and manner in which individuals consume information today. It is this bombardment of information, Nicholas Carr contends, and the ease with which we are able to ‘swipe’ through it that has impacted our ability to process and internalize smaller doses. Plato, on the other hand, was dismissive of the fear that was anticipated with the advent of every “every new tool or machine”, as expecting the worse of new technology echoed through the ages, whether it be with the arrival of the printing press, or telltale facts on social media. The reproach offered in Carr’s personal account of his growing inability to retain focus on a more ‘traditional’ source of information, such as a printed book, in light of Plato’s Phaedrus would provide that this hesitance is rote, but would in retrospect, with the normalization of such information acquiring practices, appear benign.

“Dave, my mind is going,” are the words of HAL in Kubrick’s science-fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, and they offer a blatant reflection of the deterioration of Carr’s...