Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart

by Nicholas Carr

captions. Instagram captions are different from TikTok comments. TikTok comments are different from WhatsApp messages. But they all share the fundamental characteristics of textspeak. They are all variations on a theme, and the theme is streamlined, easy-to-skim communication. As McWhorter noted, when people talk casually they prune their vocabulary to a small set of common words, use sentence fragments instead of sentences, and keep their syntax simple. As much is said through gestures and expressions as through words. That allows the conversation to move at a fast clip while remaining animated, expressive, and engaging. Talking turns speech outward, toward others. It keeps things familiar. Reading and writing, when practiced with attentiveness and care, serve a different role. They slow the mind down, force it to grapple with the complex and the unfamiliar. In the words of the cultural critic Thomas de Zengotita, “reading and writing turn the mind inward, cultivate habits of rational reflection, encourage the imagination, the inner life in general—thus giving birth to a self in the modern sense.”32