What the Internet is doing to Our Brains

Listen to the whole interview:
http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2010/jun/15/thinking-through-web/
Nicholas Carr, journalist and author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains talks about the interaction of the brain with technology, an issue he first raised in The Atlantic article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• wnyc
• brian
• lehrer
• andrea
• bernstein
• nicholas
• carr
• reading
• books

[elnino559]

so, if google increases the maximum length of a youtube video, we will have deeper thoughts?

[crlospwr420]

I was listening to the interview and focusing only on it, then the camera turned into the woman and I thought: Wow she looks a bit like Lady Gaga and began to think random things instead of paying attention, and then I realized that this could be true.

[quidnick]

If anything, my the internet has led to much deeper thought than any book has given to me. I have a.d.d, so I have a hard time picking up information that is not thrown in my face, topics like this on Youtube, Reddit, Wikipedia (occasionally.) How humans use this savior of knowledge is not my problem. It's harder now looking on Facebook to ignore cool facts than it is simply talking to your friends face to face.

[marcocarlo25]

FUCK YOU LOL HE`S MAD CUS HE`S UGLY AS FUCK

[akaiYaMa9]

I'm wondering if this guy is just mad cuz he's got a book out and the internet has killed both the music and writing industries.

The internet is our freedom from product placement, oprah, Fox news, and all other shows that do nothing more than dumb down society.

[douggard]

The internet is allowing us to fact check, the increased communication is making us more efficient. If someone is engaged by a book it is because that book has the textual equivalent of fast cuts and exciting scenes. You never hear, "How was that best seller?" - "Oh, you know, a real grinder".

Stupid people are still stupid, distracted people just have their head in a different cloud now. The technology and access to information are tools. Tools don't make you stupid.

[twooffour]

@AaronBurhoe

I didn't ;)

[twooffour]

Ok, I'm typing this after 1 minute, because the internet's loading too slowly.

Here's the thing:

I may have difficulties focusing my attention on the internet - but not when I am at a live perfomance, or in cinema (as in the good ol' days). TV is just the same kind of addictive distraction, except, if anything, worse.

Reading a text on the internet is about equal to reading it in a book. Just as addictive, just as distracting from "introspection". There are always other books on the shelf.

[twooffour]

@crlospwr420

Yea, that's how the brain works.

[twooffour]

@HoneyLemonTee

Well, I'm usually able to still hear the points, so if anything that's a strength, isn't it ;)

[AWilberforce]

I don't think he can really say that anyone is losing those deeper and quieter modes of thought. Because if you asked him, I'm sure he'd say that he hasn't lost that type of thinking. He would say that he makes a point to take the time to think that way.