Book Review: the Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
Many are still quoting from Nicholas Carr’s 2008 Atlantic article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Here in The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, he elaborates to illustrate precisely how the Internet changes our lives. Along the way, Carr’s highly entertaining book reminds us of how the great thinkers of past centuries did just fine without a hyperlinked database of all the world's knowledge at hand.
In the 21st century, we are facing the consequences of our distracted and scattered society, and we make choices about the impact of technology, weighted with assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains presents a thoughtful, if frightening, look at what we’re doing to ourselves.
We learn to take in information the way the Internet distributes it, “in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” At best we skim the surface, rather than go deep into information, and our fragmented journey results in lack of concentration and comprehension.
Pay attention as the author cites his own difficulties with reading and that of others who find problems with their ability to read and absorb. Sadly much of our reading has become “skimming and scrolling.”
In just twenty years, since the web’s graphical browser was created, the Internet has become the communication and information medium of choice. Those of us who grew up in an analog youth can still remember when AOL was the top consumer choice for web use. Do you remember AOL's weekly allotment of a limited amount of web surfing?
Carr colors his analysis with interesting stories and profiles of some of the world’s greatest thinkers and writers, including Socrates and Plato. He reaches far back in time to bring us a full understanding of the development of human intellect over centuries.
In the late 19th century, when first using a typewriter, Nietzsche quickly found a difference in his work when not using paper and pen. ”Our writing
In the 21st century, we are facing the consequences of our distracted and scattered society, and we make choices about the impact of technology, weighted with assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains presents a thoughtful, if frightening, look at what we’re doing to ourselves.
We learn to take in information the way the Internet distributes it, “in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” At best we skim the surface, rather than go deep into information, and our fragmented journey results in lack of concentration and comprehension.
Pay attention as the author cites his own difficulties with reading and that of others who find problems with their ability to read and absorb. Sadly much of our reading has become “skimming and scrolling.”
In just twenty years, since the web’s graphical browser was created, the Internet has become the communication and information medium of choice. Those of us who grew up in an analog youth can still remember when AOL was the top consumer choice for web use. Do you remember AOL's weekly allotment of a limited amount of web surfing?
Carr colors his analysis with interesting stories and profiles of some of the world’s greatest thinkers and writers, including Socrates and Plato. He reaches far back in time to bring us a full understanding of the development of human intellect over centuries.
In the late 19th century, when first using a typewriter, Nietzsche quickly found a difference in his work when not using paper and pen. ”Our writing