The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr remains a powerful book (published 2011) regarding how our brains have re-wired in the age of the internet. I began reading just as COVID-19 began taking hold. How will our brains react to this pandemic?
Over the course of Carr’s chapters the world instantly became remote workers.
According to Carr’s conclusions, our brains will re-wire again adjusting to our new global working environments. Actually this will occur within a very short period of time.
The source for his book originated from an article Carr actually wrote for The New Yorker called “is google making us stupid” back in 2008. There is a chapter dedicated to Google Search.
Does The Shallows reveal new internet changes to human behavior? No, Carr shows that history’s ‘drastic changes’ regarding access to new technology dates even beyond Nietzsche and Freud. Their technology change? The typewriter was a very dynamic change from Gutenberg’s printing press. Approaches to cognitive thought was drastically changed by the technology available to Freud’s era: powerful microscopes.
The twentieth century provided neuroscientists access to the human brain. This resulted in a drastic change in this era: measuring changes in the adult brain, as until this time, it was believed the adult brain was incapable of growth.
Chapter 7: The Juggler’s Brain addressed ‘the web’ in 2011 and the impact on human behavior. All research indicated students in College were worse (academically) due to continued exposure to the web. Actually it was really a lack of focus and concentration. Carr seems to suggest the internet was simply running over traditional studies due to some magical attraction …. my view remains this impact is an addiction.
Harvard’s bookstore talk with author Nicholas Carr:
NPR’s article ‘The Shallows’: This Is Your Brain Online (with excerpt) helps set the stage for his research. His book is further complemented by a New York Times review Our Cluttered Minds.
Has our society today become just ‘skimmers’ of information? Carr reveals new research suggesting students in college can no longer read ‘long’ textbooks. Again is for a lack of concentration? Or can a student majoring in Literature actually not read key academic books?
There is much to consider in The Shallows. Especially in today’s remote work environment as we confront covid-19. Many will find this book a resource with great insights to human behavior when addressing massive covid-19 datasets.