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 carefully articulated thought and theory and training ourselves to be surface or shallow information consumers. We are becoming intolerant, impatient, and incapable of deep thought.

This scares me! I can relate to the feeling of being pulled away from concentrated tasks by my social networks. It is instant gratification but for what pay off? I wanted Carr to make broader predictions about what will come of this or how we can stop it. He didn't go that far but then again, the man is not a psychic. He is a very astute journalist who has a message that I wish more people would listen to, and I don't just mean on Twitter. Although ironically, I may Tweet out this book review.