Critical Essay

Untitled Part 1

Joe Kavanaugh

Stefen Britt

ENG 111

12 December 2014

Critical Reflection Over AMS Paper 

I have always been fascinated by technology. As a kid, a close friend ad I would be huddled around my television playing my Nintendo 64. When my mom would be at the library applying for jobs, I was on Cartoon Network's website playing games or the Outernet website ( it was this weird site that interacted with the Outernet series of small novels, and each book had a code to unlock more content.) It came as no surprise to anyone when I picked Google and its supposed ability to make us stupid for the topic of my AMS paper. It was a concept that we spent a great deal of time on in class, between reading the articles, talking about the articles, and just listening to the instructor's point of view on the subject. The topic is also heavily debatable, and I thoroughly enjoy a good debate. Technology is one of my strong suits and it was an easy concept for me to get behind an argument and attack the issue. 

I choose to say that Google is, in fact, not making us stupid but making the learning process more complete than hunting down and reading books. I have always loved to read. I had to read all the words belonging to a letter of the alphabet in the dictionary every day so that my dad would buy me the new Harry Potter novel when it came out (I believe it was the 6th one). I have multiple shelves of books stacked against both walls in my room. But, when it came to reading books for information for a paper or presentation, I felt more like it was a chore to collect the information, and even more of one to synthesize it into an argument for one side or another. When I finally had better access to the internet through Lawton High School and my uncle's house (where I was staying after I was done being home-schooled with dial-up), a maze of information was handed to me via the internet. All I had to do was ask the right questions. In the next few years leading up to now, it didn't matter what class I had, what project I was working on, or what information I may or may not need. Like a best friend on your saddest days, Google was there, guiding me towards answers to worksheets, pictures and information for PowerPoint projects, and of course, intellectual articles for the ACT papers that came out the Waa Zoo from my English teachers (even in Senior Year they were pounding ACT and by that point we really should have been focusing on MLA and AMS styled papers). When I read Carr's essay, and found myself almost agreeing with a multitude of his points, it hit me like a freight train. I began to consider for a moment if my greatest ally in my learning, my greatest tool, Google, was actually taking away from my learning experience. I argued with myself on the subject more than I thought I would that week, until finally I reached the conclusion that without Google, I wouldn't have had the insight and knowledge for those projects that I had used to direct and voice my thoughts on those topics I had written about in my high school career.

That being said, the way I used Carr's article and Batson's response to it made it difficult to state my thesis when I first created the paper. I used Carr's question, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" as my thesis, and then tried to argue against it the entire time. There was no focus on Google making us stupid, and instead it consisted of ways Google is helping our intelligence. So, I had to go back in and revise to say that Google isn't making us stupid. That also meant a lot of changes to the way I presented my information and opinions, because it was all based around coming back to the question, which only caused a further problem with my general focus on the topic.

Choosing my sources was bittersweet to say the least. The bitter was including Carr and his theories of Google hurting our cognitive learning. But the sweetness was choosing the sources that would back me up in saying that Google was a tool for knowledge in its best form. By that, I mean that with a matter of 5-10 clicks of a mouse and maybe 20-40 minutes, you have 5-10 people's views and knowledge on any subject you could imagine. Batson directly challenged Carr with a piece that was a direct response to Carr's article, and that meant that the key argument against my train of thought was already argued against for me, and I only had to resonate that argument with my own voice's wavelengths. My dad's video on Google Glass was a fun project and a great way to get him started on video editing, and I thought that the idea of it being used as an educational tool for surgeons still astounds me. The conversation and learning experience with my uncle that I wrote about and used for the AMS paper also made me appreciate what Google and technology can do for people. He can now look at properties, find locations, and get directions much easier, especially since he doesn't get around very well.

The most difficult part of the essay was fixing my focus problem. That took a lot of trying to find my own voice and stop letting the quotes and ideas from the authors do my work for me. But as I began to synthesize their ideas with my own, I found it much easier to do so by the end of revising the paper, and I feel confident that I got it right this time.

Overall, I did enjoy the essay and it reassured me of my belief in the usefulness of Google and technology overall. I liked the challenge of synthesizing my voice with their own and challenging my opinions and beliefs while also stating and reinforcing them. I feel that even though I had to use so many sources, after a little bit of guidance, I was on the right track to staying focused on the thesis, which is now that Google does not make us stupid, but instead delves us into a world of better cognitive learning.