In rhetoric, there are three appeals ethos, pathos, and logos, which are always present throughout a work.  One may be stronger and more present than another, but in all good writing all of them are present throughout the work.  In the article "Is Google Making us Stupid," Nicholas Carr focuses on how since technology has advanced and the internet holds the answers to all of our questions, we as humans are no longer capable of reading a long book, or concentrating for long periods of time, because our minds begin to wander.  The argument people believing the Internet is helpful, and it is not hurting people intellectually, or people may believe what Carr is trying to argue with it being a distraction.  By arguing this he appeals to values and morals, and he backs up the evidence with specific, reliable examples, and the informal structure of the article makes it more interesting and easier to understand.  Pathos is the appeal that seems to be most present in this article throughout, but is accompanied by ethos, and logos by incorporating the way they affect the reader. All three appeals appear several times throughout, but one of them in particular, pathos, is the strongest by appealing to specifically the reader's morals, and made the speakers argument the most convincing while incorporating the other appeals to help.

The author talks about a topic that can be looked at through many different ways, but he gets the point across in the end.  The main argument is that "concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.  I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do" (Carr p.489) all because of the presence of the Internet and technology.  The argument being that people are so consumed by their phones or computers that when they have to read something it becomes hard, and there are so many other things on their minds making concentration challenging.  The opposing argument is the use of actual reading is not useful anymore and does not need to be important anymore since we have all these available resources to us on the computer and phones.  With text messaging, people have developed a different type of reading now "weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology" (Carr 491) since now we have all these different, and more interesting things to read that are available to us we no longer rely and want the books.  With two sides of the argument they way that the speaker explains his argument is crucial to getting the audience to agree. 

Appealing to the audience's morals, and values by telling a story that they have a preconceived idea about that may have a bodily influence or imagery is pathos.  Carr used that appeal throughout the article in attempt to tell a story and bring awareness to the topic by playing on with the audience's morals.  Since technology is a present topic the audience has an idea about it because it is controversial now.  Some may believe it is advancing education and intelligence and has all of the answers, and others may believe that it is merely a distraction, and gets in the way of intelligence because people really do not have to think anymore.  The speaker moves on to talk about how the Internet affects human beings, saying, "as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence" (Carr 496).  This is appealing to the audience's values and beliefs, if they believe that technology helps and advances society then they probably have an opinion on what he is trying to say.  Hypothetically, the audience throughout the article has to choose to stay with what they value and believe, or if they think the speaker is right in saying that technology is affecting the way we learn and concentrate now.  By using pathos the speaker is raising a question in everyone's mind if they too go through what he is talking about with regard to getting distracted and fidgety when they have to read.  The imagery throughout is helpful because it pertains to a specific person telling stories about their experiences and what happens to them, and people could relate to that.

Although pathos is the most present and obvious appeal that is used in this work, ethos and logos are present throughout.  Pathos is the strongest appeal throughout the work, but the other appeals come in to play as well.  Logos comes out in this article by including reliable sources that the audience may know, or be more likely to listen to what they say.  It interacts with pathos by giving a more logical way of looking at it.  One of them, "Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine" (Carr 490) shows that he knows about the use of computers influencing something in society so his opinion brings a sense of reliability to the argument and makes people more likely to listen.  Ethos appears in this argument is by arguing something that people already have an opinion about, and could be passionate about.  Everyone knows what technology is so people already believe in their mind their opinion, but the author could be bringing in ideas that the audience agrees with and starts to believe.  Carr uses personal experiences to help the audience see what he is talking about and maybe they can relate to it. 

Using all three appeals strategically helps the audience to form an opinion, and find interest in what the speaker is saying.  Pathos is the most present in the article because of the way that the speaker uses values and beliefs to try to argue a side, but also has ethos and logos throughout by using reliable sources and connecting to the audience by talking about something that they will know about and have a strong opinion about.  This is just one opinion on the topic and many others may think and feel otherwise about it.  

