August 16th 2010
The Shallows. What the internet is doing to our brain. Nicholas Carr.
The Shallows. What the internet is doing to our brain. Nicholas Carr. 2010. ISBN 9780393072228. This is a provocative and very important book. Its genesis was the author noticed his inability to focus and not be distracted as he used the Internet more and more. As befits the author of Does It Matter? and The Big Switch , he looked at the impact on many technologies on thinking/the brain along with the commentators of the time. This included the advent of clocks, writing (clay to parchment) , printing press , telephone, phonograph and now the World Wide Web. Along the way he talks about the evolution of the brain, using eBooks, how interruptions affect learning, how he unplugged to write this book, is Google good or evil, and general comments about writers on these and many subjects,. By the end the writing of the book seems to have allowed him to rationalize where the Web can and will fit and where we need to be careful. He even notes that our attention deficits may be rooted in pre web learned behaviors and we will learn new ways of sorting information. I read this almost in one sitting – it is very well done, thoroughly researched and annotated, with lots of further reading noted. Great four hour coast read.
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