The Shallows

Preview

Come in and sit with me for a while, because I want to talk about what the Internet may be doing to our minds. That question lies at the heart of The Shallows, a book that begins not with a grand theory but with a feeling, a nagging sense that something intimate is changing inside us. Reading used to feel different. Thinking used to feel different. A long book could pull us into a state of deep attention, and there we could stay, following one idea into the next with patience and pleasure. Then the screen arrived, bringing speed, convenience, and a constant stream of stimulation. It gave us access to an astonishing amount of information, yet it also began to chip away at the habits of mind that serious reading and quiet reflection depend on. What I try to explore here is not just whether the Internet distracts us. That would be too simple. Every medium shapes us. Every tool we use to think becomes, in some measure, a tool that thinks for us. That is the deeper story. From the map to the clock, from the printed book to the computer, our technologies do more than extend our powers. They alter the way we see the world, the way we arrange our days, and the very paths along which our thoughts travel. Nicholas Carr sets out to understand whether the online world, with its links, alerts, feeds, and endless opportunities for interruption, is encouraging a mode of thought that is fast, restless, and scattered. He asks what happens when the brain is trained to skim rather than to ponder, to dart rather than to dwell. He also asks why this matters. The answer has to do with memory, concentration, creativity, and even our sense of self. If the...