In “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” Nicholas Carr shows how our brains have changed to adapt to the Internet era, as technology has become a major part of our lives. The book reads as a long narrative with personal issues with the Internet, daily life experiences, and much advice. If you are addicted to the Internet, you will be shocked when you read Carr’s assertion that computers are destroying our concentration, and search engines are making people lazy: they no longer use academic and trustworthy sources.
Carr wants us to blame ourselves, not the technology. He asserts that many people are having difficulties reading long articles or books, because they are used to the fast pace of reading Internet pages, where you can read extensive news articles and view many pictures all at once. The distraction described by Carr definitely exists. For myself, I find it difficult those days to carry a book and read it while I’m riding the metro or sitting in a coffee shop. Nowadays, I’m carrying my IPad, IPhone, or laptop. There is no need to carry books or newspapers.
Carr, however, sees this as a natural reaction of the brain to recent changes. He links our ability to accept change and become accustomed to it to the flexibility of our minds to be shaped via experience. I think he is right; my mind is now refusing to accept any hardcover book, or anything that takes a long time to read. Everything has changed, even the way in which we think.
