“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped... read full description
reviews
Jan 31, 2012
Esteban
rated it: 
I call bullshit.
*****
"How Esteban Got His Groove Back"
Channel surfing the other day, I came across Highlander. I’d never watched the movie all the way through, even as a fanboy teenager those twenty four years ago (!) when it was released, and, noticing that Christopher Lambert bears a striking resemblance to the guy in HBO’s Hung -- a serialized comedy-drama about a male prostitute with an enormous dick for which my wife has an altogether unsettling More...
*****
"How Esteban Got His Groove Back"
Channel surfing the other day, I came across Highlander. I’d never watched the movie all the way through, even as a fanboy teenager those twenty four years ago (!) when it was released, and, noticing that Christopher Lambert bears a striking resemblance to the guy in HBO’s Hung -- a serialized comedy-drama about a male prostitute with an enormous dick for which my wife has an altogether unsettling More...
30 comments
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(39 people liked it)
Jul 04, 2010
(Even more late breaking updates, below. Still haven't read it yet, though.)
This book is mentioned in the thoughtful-if-long New York Times Magazine article Texts Without Context, which explores how technology is altering the way we absorb ideas, especially the written word, and how that change in subjectivity is setting us up for subtle but radical shifts in everything from political discourse to the rights of authors.
With respect to this book itself, I'm skeptical.
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This book is mentioned in the thoughtful-if-long New York Times Magazine article Texts Without Context, which explores how technology is altering the way we absorb ideas, especially the written word, and how that change in subjectivity is setting us up for subtle but radical shifts in everything from political discourse to the rights of authors.
With respect to this book itself, I'm skeptical.
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13 comments
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(11 people liked it)
Jun 07, 2011
Mark
rated it:
Beware: when you hit the last page of this fascinating, bleak, helpless narrative -- one that addresses your own brain as a stunted, wasting bundle of unmotivated neurons -- you'll either want to retreat to a shared scholarly past, pointing at physical pages with a yad, or you'll just embrace the terrifying idiocracy-pastebin Second Dark Age that's sweeping over us. Hell, the author himself interrupts his argument on occasion to underscore his own troubles with concentration, even devoting a cha
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0 comments
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(10 people liked it)
Jun 23, 2011
Newengland
rated it: 
Here's an inference exercise: Take the first half of Nicholas Carr's title THE SHALLOWS: WHAT THE INTERNET IS DOING TO OUR BRAINS and guess what his thesis is based on the second half. Got it? Good. Cause you "got it good" when it comes to your addiction to the Internet.
Probably you wake up and wonder what's in your e-mail's inbox. Probably you check it before breakfast. Probably, even though you're not supposed to, you peek at it from work. Probably you're part of More...
Probably you wake up and wonder what's in your e-mail's inbox. Probably you check it before breakfast. Probably, even though you're not supposed to, you peek at it from work. Probably you're part of More...
9 comments
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(12 people liked it)
Oct 29, 2010
Carol
rated it: 
I don't give 5 stars lightly, but this book was absolutely fascinating - to me, at least. Though, as I read passages, I kept thinking of yet another person who ought to read it. Carr (and the book) have been getting a lot of "air play" lately - blogs, NPR, etc., and chapters and snippets of the book have appeared several places (the snippet-ization being another result of the internet that he discusses). Lots of readable, distilled scientific info about current thinking on how the brai
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Oct 21, 2011
Ancient
rated it:
I was introduced to the internets for the first time when I entered college. Up until that time, I had been an avid reader my entire life, and I could easily get lost in a book for several hours at a time. It's been over ten years since that first introduction. My internet usage is heavier now than it was back then, and I find it much harder to concentrate on solid paragraphs of the written word the way I used to - especially in the case of fiction.
Regardless of any partic More...
Regardless of any partic More...
0 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Apr 22, 2011
John
rated it:
This book was extremely interesting, lots of history, studies and observations and some personal honesty mixed in. I thought it fascinating. He has brought to my mind some interesting and disturbing reflections.
One primary drive of humans is to make life easier. We can't help but want to produce more with less effort, so this has resulted in inventions such as the tractor which plow in one day what it once took a month to accomplish by hand. We likewise seem to have a drive to crea More...
One primary drive of humans is to make life easier. We can't help but want to produce more with less effort, so this has resulted in inventions such as the tractor which plow in one day what it once took a month to accomplish by hand. We likewise seem to have a drive to crea More...
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(2 people liked it)
Jun 22, 2010
Kenneth
rated it:
Nicholas Carr's The Shallows is a book worthy of our attention. His important questions about the ubiquity of Internet use (How is the way we read changing? How is the way we write changing? How is the way we think changing?) deserve our reflection, and even if you disagree with Carr's conclusions (Is Carr a Luddite alarmist?) his thesis will give you much to mull over.
Carr's book is a welcome addition to the current dialogue about how technology shapes our lives--for better and for More...
Carr's book is a welcome addition to the current dialogue about how technology shapes our lives--for better and for More...
0 comments
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(7 people liked it)
Apr 05, 2011
Kate
rated it:
Our brains have a plasticity that is easily exploited by the rapid nature of using the internet. In fact, our brains are changing to be able to multitask but not focus in-depth on a particular thing or idea. Carr takes a wide look at this, pulling everywhere from Nietzsche, neuroscience, Google, to Dr. David Levy (one of my favorite profs)and a litany of studies. To some this change in brain wiring is fine. To others, this is not okay. Several studies Carr sites distinctly show how counterproduc
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(2 people liked it)
Aug 17, 2010
Will
rated it:
In this fascinating, informative book, Carr argues that the internet has not only affected how society communicates and works, but that how our actual brains work is being, has been changed by contemporary modes of communication. He delves into the history of research into brain function to make a case that similar biological changes occurred with prior technological breakthroughs, such as the typewriter. He cites a wealth of studies that dispel the notion of the brain as set in stone once adult
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 01, 2011
Paula
rated it:
Since Carr's thesis seemed self-evident to me, I underestimated how much I'd enjoy reading his book, and how much I'd learn from doing so. Blame it on the neuroscience, which Carr elucidates extensively, and on his historical recapitulation of the impact on the human brain and culture of earlier technologies. Since clocks, maps, alphabets, number systems & books have been givens for the entirety of my life, I've given little thought to life without them. Any consideration that I have given to
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(2 people liked it)
Sep 27, 2010
Natali
rated it:
I have been trying to put a finger on how the technology of our age has changed my thought process. Nicholas Carr hits the nail on the head with The Shallows. He proposes that our attraction to fast news, short interaction, and distracting communication tools is changing our brains and making us intolerant of long-form reading and synthesis. He says that something called neuroplasticity trains our brains to evolve based on external stimuli. So with today's digital medium, we are leaving behind c
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7 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Aug 02, 2011
Very useful discussion, with lots of fascinating historical detail, about how the brain works and how the Internet may impair its functioning. However, while analyzing different paradigms humans have used throughout history--largely based on then-current technology--Carr himself falls victim to our current paradigm when he declares that books must be digitized. Why? So some family in Zimbabwe that doesn't have electricity and can't read (English, anyway) can check out A. E. Housman? How disapp
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Jan 16, 2012
Jacob
rated it:
A well-balanced, captivating, and sometimes prescient work, detailing the modern travails of the human brain and the historical progress of technology and enlightenment that brought us to this point. Nicholas Carr's analysis of the Internet as a phenomenon is by no means singular, but is exceptional for its compelling and cohesive take on how our modern way of thought is adapting to new technologies -- rather than the other way around. The book delves into many topics, including modern neuroscie
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Jan 15, 2012
Lauren
rated it:
I read this for a reading group at my library; we picked it because we thought it'd be a good book to help us think about our changing users and what services we should offer and if how we serve them should change. In particular, the teaching librarians got together to read it.
This book was far better than I expected. And it was far more about us than our users (at least for our discussion). It's a well researched argument in that almost everything is cited. I now want to go in and More...
This book was far better than I expected. And it was far more about us than our users (at least for our discussion). It's a well researched argument in that almost everything is cited. I now want to go in and More...
Jan 12, 2012
This was kind of an intellectual circle-jerk for me. As someone who attended a school which militantly enforced a program of sustained deep reading of difficult books I don't need much convincing that reading an 800 page novel or an ancient historical chronicle is more meaningful and often more enjoyable than say, watching 8 hours of youtube video remixes in a row. But it's nice to know that Carr has now given people like me some scientific evidence for our own haughty cultural superiority. The
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7 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Dec 11, 2011
Evan
rated it:
So, what is the internet doing to our brains? It's hard for me to say, because at the same time I was reading this book, I was also checking my e-mail, practicing piano, watching reruns of the RW/RR Challenge, playing through Wind Waker again, drawing some comic strips, and otherwise completing overclocking my working memory as I led an instrumentalist way of life. You might say I was reading this book...shallowly. YEEAAAAAAAAAH!!!
Wait, let me check my notes. Ok, it says here that th More...
Wait, let me check my notes. Ok, it says here that th More...
Oct 29, 2011
Hârum
rated it:
El correo electrónico parpadea con un mensaje inquietante: "Twitter te echa de menos. ¿No tienes curiosidad por saber las muchas cosas que te estás perdiendo? ¡Vuelve!". Ocurre cuando uno deja de entrar asiduamente en la red social: es una anomalía, no cumplir con la norma no escrita de ser un voraz consumidor de twitters hace saltar las alarmas de la empresa, que en su intento por parecer más y más humana, como la mayoría de las herramientas que pueblan nuestra vida digital, nos habla
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Sep 06, 2011
Alyssa
rated it:
I can't stop talking about this book. Carr confirms what I've been feeling, too (the distractions and forgetfulness). As much as I love technology, I don't think 100% buy in to computers and all the fancy software/hardware is wise--I've witnessed teens doing "research," and unless they PRINT articles out or use a variety of sources (majority of which need to be reputable...hmm, what's reputable?) and compare and highlight, read and re-read, write and re-write (from the screen to the PR
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Aug 20, 2011
Dona
rated it:
I'd heard about Nicholas Carr before, but only briefly and the people discussing him didn't like what he had to say about whatever book or books they'd read of his. I knew nothing about him except that he wrote about technology.
Last week someone on Facebook posted a link to an article about reading which mentioned Nicholas Carr's new book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. The quote caught my attention because it mentioned Narnia and Susan Pevensie, my favorite More...
Last week someone on Facebook posted a link to an article about reading which mentioned Nicholas Carr's new book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. The quote caught my attention because it mentioned Narnia and Susan Pevensie, my favorite More...
Aug 20, 2011
Daan
rated it:
Mocht je je afvragen waar al die concentratie toch heen is, waarom het boek het steeds vaker verliest van de zielloze statusupdate, en waarom creativiteit en internet niet lijken samen te gaan, dan zal The Shallows je zeker verlichten. Het is ook, voor zover ik kan overzien, één van de eerste kritieken op de technologie van het heden en de toekomst. Hij stelt dat internet ons denken beïnvloedt omdat het gemak dat het ons brengt ook flinke negatieve gevolgen heeft voor het meditatieve, diepere be
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Aug 17, 2011
Tom
rated it:
This is a very well written and researched book. I feel everyone, even technology enthusiasts such as myself, should read it.
However, I disagree with his assertion that immersive (i.e., focused long form) reading can only occur with paper. E-ink devices, such as the Kindle and Nook, allow for an equally immersive experience -- with many added benefits. He briefly admits to that fact, but then argues that e-ink devices will soon be swallowed whole by the Internet medium, which he fe More...
However, I disagree with his assertion that immersive (i.e., focused long form) reading can only occur with paper. E-ink devices, such as the Kindle and Nook, allow for an equally immersive experience -- with many added benefits. He briefly admits to that fact, but then argues that e-ink devices will soon be swallowed whole by the Internet medium, which he fe More...
Aug 06, 2011
Debbie
rated it:
Be afraid. Be very afraid. If you are reading this, you are on the internet and being distracted by ads, links, facebook notifications, etc. I can't compete with this "ecosystem of interruption technologies," but I'll try. The Shallows is a must read for parents, teachers, and those who truly appreciate the linear, imaginative, sustainable qualities of losing oneself in a good book or well-written article/essay. I may now cheer that I don't suffer from Alzheimer's after all, but "
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Jul 16, 2011
Ed
rated it:
I read this book in more or less one or two sittings, which suggests that my attention span and ability to immerse myself deep in the linear, hypertext free, uninterrupted by email alerts and my ability to remember stuff without a laptop crutch is undiminished. This is a very well written book, interesting, well backed by extensive reading and discussion of emerging neuroscience on brain plasticity.And of course because our brains are proving to be so plastic, the internet is really messing with
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(2 people liked it)
Jul 14, 2011
Laurie
rated it:
This was a the second of four books for the course EDES 545 Technology Integration. Carr presents the view that because we spend so much time scimming and scanning and constantly connected that are brains are being rewired so that we are no longer able to think deeply and reflect. One big take away is his section of neuroplascitity. Science today states that our brains do have the capacity to rewire themselves so if we are finding that we are too connected all is not lost and those who have l
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Jul 09, 2011
Matt
rated it:
A great, timely read. I recommend this book for anyone who uses the Internet a lot (that's probably you), and is finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on one thing for an extended period of time. Carr brings together snippets of science from many disciplines, especially neuroscience and psychology, to give us a sense of how our brain works and how using the Internet is changing its inner workings. I also really enjoyed how he compares the computer and the Internet to other intellectua
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Jul 04, 2011
Elaine
rated it:
Horrifying. Depressing. Scary. Not the book! What's horrifying is the research he presents showing what the Web is doing to people's brains. What's depressing and scary are his quotes from leading educators gleefully cheering the abandonment of reading. What they advocate is a book free education with students surfing the Web for all their information.
Carr is no Doomsday prophet or a Chicken Little crying, "the sky is falling!" Rather, he presents up-to-date comprehensive More...
Carr is no Doomsday prophet or a Chicken Little crying, "the sky is falling!" Rather, he presents up-to-date comprehensive More...
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Jul 03, 2011
Sherry
rated it:
Ever school administrator should read this book! (as should everyone else). Nicholas Carr's research and thought provoking findings about how our use of the internet is changing our brains and our ways of thinking has caused me to want to advocate more than ever a balance of walks in the woods, true "hands on/hearts on" community service, reading "Saved By a Poem" and memorizing a few of our own and looking for ways for all to use the Internet well instead of letting it use u
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Jul 01, 2011
Paul
rated it:
Nicholas Carr begins "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" with a conundrum: he tells us he is rarely able to "immerse myself in a book or a lengthy article," then expects us to read his book-length treatise on the topic. And, because he is an engaging and thoughtful writer, he succeeds. Those of us who do not have trouble reading (or writing) long articles or books would suggest to Carr that he appears to be right on target in explaining how our brains cha
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Jun 05, 2011
Bryan
rated it:
This is an excellent and important book about the ways in which the internet is profoundly shaping and transforming our abilities to think, argue, write, read, and communicate with one another. Carr does a good job of avoiding useless generalities, and instead grounds much of the book in careful surveys of empirical research and historical insight concerning the affects of the internet on our brains. Carr also does an especially good job setting forth his thesis about the transformative effects
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