The Shallows – What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Highly recommend this (audio) book. The content is enlightening, well researched and well presented/delivered. The narrator also does a great job, doing justice to the book as if he authored it himself.

The blurb claims this book to be a "Silent Spring" for the literary mind. That is certainly comparing apples to oranges, but at the core to this book there is a thought-provoking argument about the impact of various technologies on the workings of the mind. Carr's main thesis (to be found almost in its entirety in his article "Is Google making us stupid?") is that the Internet is changing our minds, our ability to think and the way we use our memories, and all this not necessarily for the better. Essentially, the Internet is a universe of distractions, offering endless light entertainments and pointless interruptions that train our brains into an addictive shallow pattern of ineffectual multitasking. We hold up the new technology on a pedestal as a doorway to a new world of knowledge and communication, bringing with it benefits for social interaction, personal liberty and scientific endeavour, but Carr claims that this portal is not without its drawbacks vitiating our ability to think deeply, or use our memories effectively. Whilst much of the furore that came after the publication of his article/this book ascribes him to being a drum-bashing technophobe, there is little Luddite rhetoric here, and this book is far from the grandiloquent jeremiad its often labelled as being. The book itself is largely well-written, with the core argument never far from the narrative, and there is plenty of research here to back up the claims. Certainly this is no serious scholarly work, the charge often levelled at Carr that he only cherry-picked research findings which bolstered his main argument is probably justified, but there is enough food here for thought. The arguments of the aforementioned article have been padded out with some interesting historical background, findings from the realms of neuroscience and psychology, and parallels to other technological shifts, but at times it does feel like one is reading an undergraduate essay hurried off to a deadline: a string of hopefully worthy quotes, strung together by the occasionally conjunction ("..." and "...", however "..."). The best chapters are those which don't shy away from using the personal pronoun 'I' and reflect the authors own observant struggles with the new age technologies, and the sadly all too short chapter on the Internet's influence on our use of memory is of its own a very thought-provoking aside. At less than 250 sparsely-packed pages, this is a book that shouldn't exhaust even the attention span of the novus homo it describes. It should be of interest to people born both sides of the Internet divide, and the well-researched reports on historical parallels and psychological aspects offer plenty of titbits for our minds to work on. The reproach that Carr offers no solutions to the problematic developments he highlights is, in my opinion, to the book's strengths not weaknesses. It is a commentary, rather than a critique. Social change can be halted about as easily as the tides, though we might as individuals choose to tread our own paths. But it behoves us all well to acknowledge Change's existence.

Given the title of this book, it would be a shame if it were a shallow read itself. Instead, it is challenging, perceptive and informative. I am enjoying it very much.

Shocking but very interesting study.

Great read and insightful.

Excellent

If you want to understand what is happening to our minds in relation to the Internet or anything else why ask someone with a degree in American Literature? Ask as webscientist, ask the Oxford Internet Institute, ask a psychologist or neuroscientist. And read empirical research rather than hear say with a muddle-headed hypothesis that Carr is determined to prove ... by citing Plutarch and Socrates. Carr is no neuroscientist - three decades ago he took a first degree in English Literature (Dartmouth College) followed by a Masters in American Literature (Harvard). He should stick to what he knows. As a book it is a remarkably satisfactory artifact. There is no e-Book version. Which is ironic. It would also have saved me some money. Even in paper back the cover has a wonderful fine grittiness to it - like sand. I even open the book and breathed it in. For this experience 10/10. All publishers, especially those online, need to take trouble with the Art Work too. Of course the plaudits sing out 'buy me, buy me' but as reviews go they are about as helpful as one liners on the latest blockbuster. Carr writes well enough, not quite Bill Bryson, but an easy and intelligent read, an amble through the relevant technologies to the present day. Carr can be accepted as a cultural and social historian, his mistake is to want to want bash this evidence into shape to support his conception of the Internet and its dangers. It is like saying that `rural man' is different to `urban man', that the motivations, pace and opportunities are different. Whilst this may be true, the sorts of changes to the brain that Carr suggest are not occurring. Carr's conception of mind is both out of date and misconstrued. What he suggests in relation to the mind is twaddle on so many levels it feels no more possible or desirable to refute than the enthusiastic chatter of a child. Carr doesn't strike me as someone who easily persuaded when he has something wrong. everything touches our minds everyone is different not everyone has access to the Internet even those who do use it for a myriad of different things in a multitude of ways. years of solitary confinement, or years in the trenches on the Western Front affect different people in different ways. 'The Shallows' is an apt title as the thinking lacks depth. Look up a the authors Carr cites and you find they say as much to counter the arguments as support them, take the Nobel prize winning Eric Kandel for example who on the one hand identified the 'plasticity of the brain', but also showed that through habituation a sort of boredom sets in - it is hardly the case that Google is taking over our brains as Carr would have us believe. There is no research, rather an amble through the literature. As an mental indulgence I am reading the book and putting it through my mental shredder. In print form only makes checking references somewhat tedious. In eBook forms others would be questiong the text more often and with far great ease. What I dislike the most is how he misrepresents the work of others. The Nobel prize winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, for example, is quoted selectively to support Carr's view that our plastic brains are being permanently set out of kilter by Google and the Internet.

Perfect! Thank you!

Esse livro precisa ser impresso em português o quanto antes! É extremamente essencial para os tempos atuais. Eu li a versão de 2011 em português e esse é exatamente o mesmo, mas com um capítulo a mais no final. Apesar de ter sido escrito em 2007-2009, o conteúdo é atual e alarmante. Nicholas nos mostra, com base em vários estudos, como a internet alterou nossa forma de pensar e agir (assim como outras ferramentas criadas no passado, como o relógio e mapa). Hoje em dia, nosso cérebro tem mais dificuldade em se aprofundar em algo, em se concentrar e em se manter focado por muito tempo. O cérebro acostumou-se com estímulos rápidos e superficiais, graças ao que a internet nos proporciona: acesso a milhões de informações em questão de segundos, de forma muito descomplicada. O último capítulo é mais atualizado e aborda bastante sobre os smartphones e suas implicações na nossa mente. É preocupante, estamos nos tornando mais superficiais e reféns desses aparelhos. Me sinto muito privilegiado em ter absorvido esse conteúdo. Mesmo não tendo inglês fluente, consegui entender grande parte dos textos. Sugiro a leitura a todos, principalmente àqueles que estão preocupados e que notaram que suas mentes estão inquietas e que não conseguem se concentrar por muito tempo.

It's a good book and I will definitely recommend it for someone who is willing to contemplate the impact of modern day technology on our lives.

Carr provides insights that seem obvious once absorbed. He talks about rowing against a growing tide of information that is overwhelming our humanity. I've often thought of social-apps and modern communication technologies as giant drag-nets catching everything in the ocean of consciousness. A form of psychic colonization, these nets of social-apps, or tides of information, catch nearly everything that can be caught. Maintaining some modicum of mental sovereignty over one's ability to think clearly and without distraction becomes more and more of a challenge. Carr's book might read like an added chapter to Scott's "Seeing like a State", or perhaps Saul's "Voltaires Bastards". In sum: a good read, and also a relief to know there are minds out there like Carr.

Un libro que va al grano. Muy buena lectura y me llego en perfectas condiciones.

Passionnante étude, très accessible et très instructive (sans tomber dans le simpliste, bien au contraire!) Je ne peux que conseiler à TOUT utilisateur des internets de lire ce livre! Comme le souligne l'auteur à de multiples reprises "Nous outils nous transforment", et l'usage très spécifique du Web engendre un usage très spécifique de notre cerveau. Le Web nous change, qu'on le veuille ou non ; autant s'informer du "comment" et avoir une conscience plus éclaircie su ce sujet.