THE SHALLOWS by Nicholas Carr (review and excerpt)

Do your read every word in reviews like these, or do you just scan? More and more these days people are reading fewer books and articles in favor of gathering hundreds of snippets of information from all over the web. As a result, our attention spans are dropping, and our ability to think deeply, critically, and creatively is diminishing. According to Nicholas Carr in THE SHALLOWS, the internet is rewiring our brains, with some benefits, but with other more ominous evolutionary consequences. It's true that computers and so-called "smart" phones have transformed the speed and convenience of our assimilation and disbursement of information. (We now consume many more isolated facts, along with more trivia than ever.) But what we know is also on a much more superficial level. A level which is less likely (than reading entire books) to result in truly understanding the topics involved, or with comprehending the connections between ideas and history. (Before any deep thinking can happen there's another link to follow, another email to answer, another ad or pop-up to decide on viewing.) Like television, with its rapidly streaming images and sound bites, the internet reduces our tolerance for reading text, while placing everything into the category of "news" to be digested as close to real time as possible. (Which has many people checking their Blackberries up to 40 times an hour!) So atrocities in the Middle East get the same instantaneous and shallow attention as Lindsey Lohan's latest bar fight. (And what do we really know about either?) Even stellar explosions (which occurred in other galaxies millions of years ago in relative time) are presented as the latest science "news" bit, as if a video-game fragment of the story regurgitated and dumbed down for a quickly scanned webpage is all you need to know, with simplistic computer-generated animations to give the illusion of depth. (And, of course, little or no explanation is given of the underlying physics involved.) Read by Paul Michael Garcia, THE SHALLOWS explores, with careful scientific rigor, what unanticipated revolutionary changes are in store for the human mind, since what we do affects how our brains make connections. One ominous conclusion is that we are becoming even more susceptible to manipulation by the media, (to do and think like those who wish to control our actions and thoughts want us to). Walk into any library these days, and most of the book aisles are empty of people, while the computer stations are usually full. Since brain connections are not just being formed but also being loosened, and since thought is linked to language, will there be a time when there is no longer room anymore for the poetry, the grandeur and awe of contemplation and imagination, or the epiphany of understanding realized in books? Is Orwell's 1984 nightmare to be realized in 2084, or sooner? http://www.TowerReview.com

Category:

Education

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