In
chapter 8, Carr talks about Google, how it has progressed, and mainly, how they
tried to make online prints of an immense amount of books. He explains that the Google company got the
okay from multiple different libraries, but was later sued for copyright by the
individual authors. The authors argued
that Google did not get exclusive permission from them to print their books
online, saying that it was causing them to lose massive amounts of money because
the books were free online. Google ended
up working out a contract where the authors got paid a portion from them,
keeping the authors happy for the moment.
He also argues that online books promote skimming through books or only
reading important parts instead of fully absorbing the importance of the actual
text.
Carr
argues pathos when he says that putting a book online is to “dismember”
it. This shows that Carr does not agree
with digitalizing books. I think that he
feels that when books are put online, they loose meaning. Carr says that online books create more of a
distraction for people because they are jumping from link to link rather than
staying on the book and reading. He also
says that books on Google usually only have excerpts of books instead of the
entire text. This reinforces the idea of
skimming through text and not fully absorbing the book.
Carr
uses ethos by basing his argument around Google. I believe this is an example of ethos because
Google is a well known and very popularly used search engine. It is used so widely, so it isn’t a stretch
to say anyone reading the book would understand and believe Carr. Also, Google is very helpful and usually
accurate, giving it much credibility.
Carr
widely appeals to logos when he talks about how online books have had a negative
effect. I think that people can relate
and understand when Carr says how much different reading online is than reading
an actual book. Most people probably
don’t even realize how distracted they get while reading online as opposed to
reading a hard copy, so when Carr brings it up, it is relatable. Also, he points out how much less information
you gain from just reading a snippet of a book.
Google allows you to just read a summary or important parts of a book,
without getting the full effect, and you would not even know it.
I
think Carr brings up a very important point in this chapter. He shows how different it is to read online
than to read in person. When reading, I
don’t realize this huge difference while in the moment but looking back, I can
remember a book I read in fifth grade much better than I can remember an
article I read online last week. This is
evidence in my personal experience that actually reading a book has a bigger
and longer lasting effect than online books.
I am so easily distracted by the web while online, it is hard to take
the time to focus on an “ebook” for a long period of time.
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