The Impact of the Internet on Our Lives Research Paper

Analyzing how the internet impacts our lives is a very important task. It is crucial to know how and why our society is changing due to the internet. There has never been this much cross-cultural communication in our world ever before, so it is easier than ever to learn, share, and create thanks to the internet. But we need to look at how the internet is allowing people to change their own societies. Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and Manuel Castells’ “The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective” provide much analysis on our changing minds and actions due to the internet. Information, sourced studies, and literary tactics in the articles combine to tell the story of how the internet inspires societal change, autonomy, and community that is descriptive and easy to understand for readers. 

For the average reader to successfully understand an analysis of how our minds and our society are changing, the writing must be clear and overall easy to read. Full of attention grabbers, playful writing, and a wide range of sources, Nicholas Carr’s article is simple and understandable. For example, Carr begins his article with a quote. When an author begins with a quote, it is an automatic attention grabber. Throughout his piece, he uses multiple quotes that stand out and give the reader a sense of relatability. Carr illustrates the idea of engagement in his writing to touch base with the readers. This can be seen from this quote he uses in his writing: “I can’t read War and Peace anymore… I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it” (quoted in Carr). Here, we see Carr cite a pathologist, who is openly admitting to being lazy when it comes to reading. As a reader, it is helpful to see people, such as pathologists, admit to problems the average person has. It is suggesting that we are not alone in our struggles. Humans love affirmation, and this quote only proves this. It is thoughtfully placed by Carr to create a special bond that ties the reader to the article. The author uses this tactic to make the topic more engaging and coherent, which makes the topic easier to grasp.

Looking at humans, accepting change is usually always difficult for us, but only when we see it. It is important that one’s information does not scare away a reader. It should be inviting while also staying truthful. Both Carr and Castells speak about the changing of our brains, thanks in part to the internet. Humans have become less and less capable of reading long stories, articles, etc. because everywhere we look on the internet, there is a distraction to be found. Viewing this incapability from an age-based lens provides cues that point towards this being a generational situation. Without information from older generations, younger people who have grown up surrounded by technology and the internet would never be able to understand life prior to the internet. For the people who have been alive before the internet and have seen the change in our daily lives and subsequent change in mentality of younger generations, usually do not take kindly to these changes. We often hear and see criticism towards younger generations for being too attached to technology, but never do we hear criticism towards why they are attached. Carr says, “The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines is not only built into the workings of the Internet, it is the network’s reigning business model as well” (Carr). This quote explains that it is not the users fault, but the internet's fault for our technology ‘addiction.’ Carr’s article highlights the way that the internet makes its users addicted. Many perceive this addiction as negative. It isolates us and removes our social skills. But is this all true? Castells argues against this.

It is disputed by many that increased time on the internet causes lack of social skills and loneliness. According to Castells, this is not true. “… the more one person was autonomous, the more she/he used the web, and the more she/he used the web, the more autonomous she/he became” (Castells et al. 2007). This statistic is something that many people can understand. Take for example toddlers who often use a tablet to play games. These children don’t need the attention of adults as often compared to children who do not use technology regularly. Higher levels of autonomy develop in children soon after they begin to use technology. Does this mean that humans will become less social throughout their lives? As stated by Castells, no. “This is not the end of community, and not the end of place-based interaction…” (Castells) He sees it rather as a shift from mass communication to mass self-communication. Self-communication is not a negative thing whatsoever. It does not mean that humans will become less social. If anything, it will expand our social abilities and our knowledge of ourselves. It lets us discover who we are, what we like, and how we execute things rather than letting our society tell us how we should act. We become more open and welcoming to change and differences. As Castells explains, “... if the dominant cultural trend in our society is the search for autonomy, and if the Internet powers this search, then we are moving toward a society of assertive individuals and cultural freedom…” (Castells). Here, he confirms that the Internet is a tool that we as a society can use to create a more individualistic and accepting population. The internet allows for cross-cultural communication and provides us with the apparatuses to share our beliefs in a more autonomous manner. Those apparatuses are social media sites.

Ever since the early 2000s, web designers have been creating hundreds of sites that allow users to share information. As Castells describes it, social networking sites are where “... all human activities are present, from personal interaction to business, to work, to culture, to communication, to social movements, and to politics” (Castells). Social networks are important when looking at how and why our society is changing. Observations have shown that there are rarely any gender, economical class, or educational level imbalances occurring on social networking sites. This is a big reason why social media has made such a huge impact on our society: It is so diverse. Never before have humans been able to share their own cultures at the rate that they are today. Accessibility to these sites grants humans from all social and economic classes to begin a transformation of ideas and beliefs specific to their society, also known as culture. 

The internet is a place that inspires new beliefs, ideas, and friendships. It builds a sense of community, understanding, and autonomy. Carr focuses on how humans have been impacted by the use of the internet while keeping his writing engaging and easy to read. While connecting with the reader, Carr presents us with the fact that generations of humans are becoming less and less capable of paying attention because of how the internet distracts us. But Carr refuses to blame humans for this. Rather, he puts the spotlight on technology. Castells perfectly provides information that helps formulate the idea of internet-caused autonomy. He thoroughly explains that autonomy is not a bad thing, but as a tool with which we can use to create a more accepting society. With scientific studies and evidence, he describes that we are shifting from mass communication to mass-self communication, which entails how humans are learning more about themselves while learning from others on the internet. Using specific literary tactics and much information, the authors write of how the internet changes us, and in turn how we all cooperatively change our societies and our cultures.