Rhetorical Analysis “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr

Ever imagined a world without Google? Have you ever asked yourself how our grandparents managed studies without Google? How did they go about reading the long the long texts letter by letter without the option of skimming through them? Were there other reading techniques that were almost equivalent to Google in efficiency and speed that have since become extinct and that we might run to should we wake up one day and realize that Google was just but a dream in our long sleep that was too good to be true? Will we manage to pin down the two- sentenced killer point in a journal with a thousand pages. How I wish I could shout ‘YES' but am afraid those brains are almost extinct in the world we live in. Nicholas Carr narrates his disappointment in Google in his article,† Is Google Making Us Stupid?† According to him, our minds have evolved to quick and easy skimming in search of information. He talks of how students used to read long texts without skimming. He mentions how one would concentrate and keep focus for long hours with their minds totally lost in the reading, unlike today. Carr recalls how he used to easily immerse himself in books and lengthy articles and would spend hours going through them with his mind caught up in the long prose and would or narratives. He compares this to his current state of mind where his concentration drifts away after just the first few pages of the prose before he starts considering to switch to other duties most of which would come second in his priority list back in the old days.His love for long reading hours has turned into torture to him. He compares the two reading habits and concludes that his way of thinking has changed over the years with reading especially through long stretches of prose moving down his priority list. To show that he is not the only one undergoing the reading evolution, he brings out other writers and bloggers including Scott Karp who share in his ordeal and from all of them its evident that the human mind and the use of the internet are correlated in that the functionality of the human mind can be transformed thus losing some features and gaining new ones when exposed to different environments, e.g. the internet for longer hours. The internet has made them all prefer to go for the easier option of skimming through the reading materials topics and parts of the body instead of trying to focus and concentrate on the whole content to get the information in details as it used to be. Most readers thus end up reading less. Carr explains the findings of research and experiments done on the human brain and the use of the Internet. He describes how the connections in the neurone system of the brain can be manipulated from its initial form to a completely new form. The conclusions are that when an individual uses the Internet for long, his/her neurocircuits can be manipulated and reconnected thus reducing their capacity to read like before, i.e. by contemplating and concentrating for long hours, which practically makes us stupid. In one of the research, the findings by the British Library, a team of UK educational consortium and university college London Scholars, the evidence as experienced by Nicholas Carr, writers and bloggers Scott Karp included, it proven that persons' capacity to read for long hours, contemplating and concentrating has been by far by the use of internet. They opt to skim through texts and headlines, which are unlike their traditional reading style where they would focus, concentrate and read for long hours deeply glued on the long proses going through word after word. In the article, he describes how the brain can switch forms from the old connections to a completely new form that's losing its original form. Nicholas says that he has had a feeling of someone or something reconfiguring his brain and transforming it into something else that he cant literally describe. He feels that due to long exposure to a different environment, his brain has been disconnected from its older connections and that through the Internet his brain is being corrupted in that he is now seeing things very differently. The Internet works in such a manner that it generates more profits form the user. As we surf, we tend to visit different sites that mostly create Internet traffic. In some instances, advertisement links normally pop-up while surfing. These sites are normally intended to market some businesses, and they act as distractors that encourage slow reading. When the mind is programmed to slow destructions, we end up not surfing for the intended issues. For instance, when a person uses the Internet to perform given research, he or she may end up with poor findings due to the distraction of the mind. Therefore, Internet users must learn how to evade the advertisement sites in a bid to maximize on the limited time. Nicholas Carr asserts that a majority of the advertisements have a financial obligation of collecting our data as we visit the business links. In this light, they normally reap heavily the more we click on the unwanted sites. Human beings have become highly dependent on the Internet to the extent that they browse even the obvious things. For instance, a person may even decide to surf for the reasons as to why children must obey their parents. This is a subject that is common to every person and should come naturally instead of browsing to get more information. The Internet indeed makes up stupid since most of the people spend much time thus reducing the concentration of the mind. The mind is then triggered in such a way that it will solely depend on the Intern even when serving for the obvious issues. In summary, I think that people need to use Google when it is only necessary and start doing traditional research. This aspect will indeed result in the development of sharp minds that can also become innovative.

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Current Strategy of Ikea - Essay Example This paper puts into perspective the various current strategies employed by IKEA. IKEA’s current strategy is focused on low cost of operations. Case in point is that the company assembles most of its products on a self-assembly basis. This strategy is critical for the company because it helps in cutting transportation and operational cost. The company also uses the strategy to focus on the middle class on each segment of the market (Palepu et al., 2012). IKEA has a strategy that has immense cultural orientations. Case in point is that the company’s advertisement program has attention catching elements that make its products salable to a wide range of customers. Essentially, IKEA does not focus its attention on the mass market, but rather concentrates on marketing approaches that target individuals. The market in the current dispensation is increasingly competitive, and IKEA has sought to establish mechanisms that can ensure continual relevance in the market. Ideally, the company’s current strategy is more quality oriented (Elliott et al., 88). Quality defines the products that a company deals with and fundamentally distinguishes it from the competitors. IKEA has become bullish in the market due to its quality furniture that is characterized by uniqueness. Another current strategy that IKEA focuses on is the diversification of its products (Elliott et al., 212). The Company does not just focus on the mainstream furniture products, but also concentrates on childrens products. Additionally, the company produces customized products for its clients as a consequence of meeting their needs and expectations. IKEA has an advertisement strategy that has limited orientation in the international market (Daft et al., 234). Case in point is that the promotional strategy adopted by IKEA is based on catalogues. The current strategies that have been adopted by the company have

What are the trends in non-state conflict over the past 20-30 years Research Paper

What are the trends in non-state conflict over the past 20-30 years (or for whatever time period you have data) - Research Paper Example Citizen to government tensions happen in militaristic states. Often, the civilians consider the government as oppressive, the reason why they fight against it. In other instances, the military rules the state after conducting a successful coup dà ©Ã‚ ·tat. History is replete with examples such as what happened in Afghanistan in 1978 and Argentina in 1966 (Political Instability Task Force). Political parties’ competition is evident based on historical accounts. Compared to ethnic rivalries and citizen to government tensions, this type of non-state conflict is continuous, from 1955 until now. Nevertheless, it is only apparent in states which are not yet completely democratic like Benin and Congo-Kinshasa (Political Instability Task Force). Significantly, from the year 1946 up to 2005, internal armed conflict has decreased (Williams 159). From 2002 until 2005, battle-death internal conflicts have declined by about seventy percent (Williams 159). However, if the years 1946 and 2004 will be compared, there is a higher incident of non-state armed conflict in the latter year (Williams 159). Ethnic rivalries are recurring as ethnic groups want to preserve their identity and existence from generation to generation. There are times when they need to bear arms just to maintain society’s recognition. In some other situations, they have to compete for power and authority. This goes to say that power struggle is evident upon ethnic groups. This struggle turns into conflict when politics and religion join into the picture. If the government is not committed to providing a solution, this conflict persists. It is understandable why citizen to government tensions occur in states governed by the military. Often, this kind of government is strict and autocratic, the reason why the citizens could feel dissatisfied and oppressed (Art and Waltz 3). Since the one, which has power and authority, is the military, there is no other recourse but to unite and fight. The citizens,

How advertisement effects peoples lives Essay Example for Free

How advertisement effects peoples lives Essay As Americans we are exposed to advertisements everyday. People are pressured from every direction by advertisements which exploit their deepest fears, attractions, needs, and desires, shaping their behaviors, goals, and thoughts. They are led into believing false information and promises that are mostly never kept, all for the simple reason of selling the product and making profit. We see advertisements everywherein magazines and newspapers, on the radio, on TV, online, in the mail, even over the phone. These advertisements use the basic ideas of either providing an elite status with the possession of the product, or giving a sense of belonging to a group or community. Since the recent military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, another ever present idea has been made prominent and that is using patriotism to evoke peoples desires. Americans are persuaded into buying unnecessary items everyday; however, we need to realize that no matter what advertisements say we should purchase items for their usefulness, not to fill voids in our lives, so we can help eliminate the problem we face today of being a materialistic society. The patriotic theme affecting peoples hearts, minds and senses, is commonly used to manipulate them into buying things. Since everyone has love for their country, using it to sell products is a brilliant idea, but I believe this is a bad practice. It makes people believe they are not ideal Americans, nor are they similar to the people around them if they do not buy that product. The Palmolive advertisement, in Seeing and Writing 2, is a key example, it appeals to the wives of the men at war in World War II (417). On the top of this advertisement there are three medals which contain picture of three different men in their uniforms and the words For Him appear next to each picture. In the lower part of the advertisement there is a woman looking up at these medals and above her head are the words, I pledge myself to guard every bit of Beauty that he cherishes in me, and finally in the background there are several faces of women also looking towards the medals. This advertisement is basically communicating to the wives the idea of guarding their beauty, by using this soap, just like their husbands are guarding their country. The ironic fact is that soap cannot make someone beautiful, nor do people lose their beauty if they do not use the correct brand of soap. This advertisement is connecting a heroic and patriotic act  to one used for mere beauty, in order to sell the soap. The Palmolive advertisement was run in 1943, but a more current advertisement which uses similar attributes is Chevrolet and its slogan for its recent line of cars, An American Revolution. This slogan is always placed on a blue sky background and the writing is in bold white letters, except for the E in Revolution, this letter is written in red ink. So when you come across this slogan, not only does the slogan sound patriotic to you, it also appears to be patriotic because it incorporates the red, the white and the blue. This phrase says to its audience that every American is buying and driving a Chevy car and so should they. Another detail that could be interpreted out of this advertisement is that since the U.S. is currently at war and fighting a revolution against terrorism, a person living in the U.S. can participate in this patriotic revolution by purchasing a Chevrolet. This would be true only if Chevrolet was funding the war, instead of the US government. Along with this, another advertisement that exploits this concept was the Netzero advertisement run during the time before the elections. In this advertisement the spokesman was running for President under the alias of Candidate Zero. His main goal was to provide cheaper and faster internet to every family and household. In order to get peoples attention, this clever idea was used, and it certainly worked on people like me. Viewers could also connect the advertisement with the actual presidential race and that way the product of the advertisement was stuck in their conscious awareness. The whole patriotic theme is strange because the connection between patriotism and the product does not make the product function better, so why do we feel obligated to pay attention to the advertisement and even purchase that product. Along with patriotism another concept used widely is the elitism the product brings to people with its possession. As Jack Solomon wrote in his essay Masters of Desire, We Americans dream of rising about the crowd, of attaining a social summit beyond the reach of ordinary citizens (1). He is basically saying that Americans want to be better then the people around  them and this belief is what marketers feast on, creating status symbols like Rolex, Mercedes, BMW, etc. One advertisement that crosses my mind in terms of using elitism would be the new U2 iPod Special Edition advertisement. This promotes an iPod with a black cover and laser engraved signatures of the U2 band members; everything else is similar to a regular iPod; whereas, the price is $50 more. People are led into believing that the U2 iPod is better than the regular one only because it is endorsed by U2. Another ironic detail is that a normal iPod itself is a product of elitism, because even though it has similar functions to a Sony or any other MP3 player, it costs $100 more only because it comes with the signature white headphones. These headphones, unique only because an iPod come equipped with them, have made themselves and the iPod a status symbol. Most people only buy an iPod because they want the headphones to show the illusion of superiority and uniqueness. Solomon says, The explanation is quite simple: when an object (or puppy!) either costs a lot of money or requires influential connections to possess, anyone who possesses it must also possess the necessary means of influence to acquire it (3). This explains why the white headphones have made the iPod a status symbol, since its shows possession of an expensive item, even though rationally speaking the color of the headphones does not make the iPod function better, they only make it different. Solomon also talks about another part of the American Dream, in which belonging to a group is important. The Chevrolet slogan connects us to the entire American population; the iPod connects us to other owners of an iPod, and so on. We need a sense of connection and belonging, fulfilling our need for attention and affection. Abraham Maslow, a founder of humanistic psychology, created a triangle in which he placed a persons needs in the order they needed to be fulfilled and the need for love and belonging was the third basic need. Disillusioned by the advertisements, people try to fulfill this need by buying the products. This proves that using this theme advertisers are able to affect the person on much deeper levels then recognizable, yet by no means does the product itself become more useful. It is understandable that advertisers need to appeal to people in order to  sell their product and that is why they use these tactics, but what is not understandable is while knowing the truth people believe the hoaxes and let advertisements dictate what they are going to buy. People need to realize that products should not be used to fulfill our weaknesses; they should be consumed based on our needs, because companies will keep manufacturing status symbols until we accept that products and items are only materialistic and we can never attain all the luxury items around us. We are scammed into buying false promises everyday, after we realize that we have a choice against it, we can choose not to let advertisements or minor details about the product like the endorsements, or the color of headphones, or the catchy slogan persuade us into buying a certain item.