The Shallows

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains [Kindle Edition]

Author: Nicholas Carr - ISBN: B003R7L90I - Language: English - Format: PDF, EPUB

DESCRIPTION

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate

“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?



Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.



Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.



Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.
The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Start reading The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains on your Kindle in under a minute Don t have a Kindle Get your Kindle here Amazon com The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Nicholas Carr is an acclaimed writer on technology and culture His most recent book The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains was a finalist for the Nicholas Carr s The Shallows The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction Finalist for the 2011 PEN Center The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Currently Viewing The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains eBook Pub Date 6 6 2011 Publisher Norton W W Company Inc What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Jun 03 2010 THE SHALLOWS What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains By Nicholas Carr 276 pp W W Norton Company 26 95

DETAILS

• File Size: 482 KB
• Print Length: 293 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0393339750
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (June 6, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003R7L90I
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• X-Ray:
  Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,062 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #2 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Human-Computer Interaction
  • #6 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Management > Culture
  • #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Neuropsychology

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289 Reviews What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Amazon Try Prime Your To view this video download Flash Player Share your own customer images Download N Carr The Shallows What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains torrent or any other torrent from the Audio Audio books Direct download via magnet link The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains published in the United Kingdom as The Shallows Download as PDF Printable version Languages Espa ol Download The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains PDF free The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr Publisher W W The Shallows What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains torrent download for free Review The Shallows What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains User Review Jag Randhawa Goodreads The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our BrainsNicholas Carr is an acclaimed writer on technology and culture His most recent book The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains was a finalist for the Download The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr narrated by Paul Michael Garcia digital audio book Get the Audible Audio Edition of What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Back Order Download Format The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains was added to our The Shallows What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains Review Download as PDF File pdf Word Doc doc Text file txt or read online

In this short but informative, thought-provoking book, Nicholas Carr presents an argument I've long felt to be true on a humanist level, but supports it with considerable scientific research. In fact, he speaks as a longtime computer enthusiast, one who's come to question what he once wholeheartedly embraced ... and even now, he takes care to distinguish between the beneficial & detrimental aspects of the Internet.

The argument in question?

- Greater access to knowledge is not the same as greater knowledge.

- An ever-increasing plethora of facts & data is not the same as wisdom.

- Breadth of knowledge is not the same as depth of knowledge.

- Multitasking is not the same as complexity.

The studies that Carr presents are troubling, to say the least. From what has been gleaned to date, it's clear that the brain retains a certain amount of plasticity throughout life -- that is, it can be reshaped, and the way that we think can be reshaped, for good or for ill. Thus, if the brain is trained to respond to & take pleasure in the faster pace of the digital world, it is reshaped to favor that approach to experiencing the world as a whole. More, it comes to crave that experience, as the body increasingly craves more of anything it's trained to respond to pleasurably & positively. The more you use a drug, the more you need to sustain even the basic rush.

And where does that leave the mind shaped by deep reading? The mind that immerses itself in the universe of a book, rather than simply looking for a few key phrases & paragraphs? The mind that develops through slow, quiet contemplation, mulling over ideas in their entirety, and growing as a result?

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