The ShallowsThe Shallows
What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
1st ed.
Title rated 3.95 out of 5 stars, based on 229 ratings(229 ratings)
Book, 2010
Current format, Book, 2010, 1st ed, All copies in use.Book
Also offered as Book, First edition Available now. Available now
Expanding on an article that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the best-selling author of The Big Switch discusses the intellectual and cultural consequences of the Internet, and how it may be transforming our neural pathways for the worse.
Discusses the intellectual and cultural consequences of the Internet, and how it may be transforming our neural pathways for the worse.
Atlantic MonthlyThe Shallows
With references to Marshall McLuhan's "the medium is the message" and supercomputer Hal losing his 'mind' in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google joins the debate over whether the Internet is altering our thought processes. Drawing on neuroscience and computer science, Carr supports the argument that digital technology is reversing the 'deepening of thought' that the printed word launched, and Kubrick's vision that humans and computers are switching roles. The provocative book includes suggested further reading. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, SlateFinalist for the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award
“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.
Discusses the intellectual and cultural consequences of the Internet, and how it may be transforming our neural pathways for the worse.
Atlantic MonthlyThe Shallows
With references to Marshall McLuhan's "the medium is the message" and supercomputer Hal losing his 'mind' in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google joins the debate over whether the Internet is altering our thought processes. Drawing on neuroscience and computer science, Carr supports the argument that digital technology is reversing the 'deepening of thought' that the printed word launched, and Kubrick's vision that humans and computers are switching roles. The provocative book includes suggested further reading. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, SlateFinalist for the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award
“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.
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- New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, 2010.
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