Historically, reading hastened progress in society and at the same time rewired the human brain. Plato, for example, wrote of how Socrates was worried that writing had the potential to negatively impact the ability to memorize, which could lead to students thinking that they were gaining knowledge when they, in fact, were just amassing data. That new technology poses threats to the status quo is nothing new. Tools in the cognitive category are the ones that are most likely to change the brain in that they are designed to support a specific mental process. Tools such as birth control and reservoir are classified as accommodation of nature, while the final of the four categories has tools of cognitive support, such as maps, clocks, and books. Another category, sensitivity of senses, refers to inventions, such as the microscope and the Geiger counter. One category focuses on physical strength, dexterity, and resilience and includes innovations, such as plows and fighter jets. The realization that the brain can restructure itself has led to, for example, the ability to retrain the brains of stroke victims.ĭevelopments in technologies, or tools, have been placed into four categories based on purpose. The work of Eric Kandel built on this concept. Later, shifts, such as the thinking of Michael Merzenich, presented the brain as being more malleable than had been assumed. Traditional scientific assumptions had brain development ending after adolescence. Friedrich Nietzsche reported that switching from pen and paper to a typewriter changed his style of writing. The book goes on to examine historical ideas pertaining to human thinking. This, significantly, represents a shift from the fundamental method of human thinking. The reading of full-length texts requires sustained and focused linear thinking, which has become more difficult.
Children who grow up with the Internet develop a mindset that strays from the left to right reading of text, becoming a top to bottom task of searching for relevant information.
The opening chapter talks of the experience common to users of the Internet and similar technology of feeling that the more one becomes used to skimming material on the internet, the more difficult it becomes to maintain focus for an extended period of time. Carr’s book was a 2011 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.
It investigates the effects the Internet has on the brain with a central thesis that reading a printed page of text leads to a higher level of comprehension than does reading online. The book was first published in the UK with the title The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by American journalist Nicholas Carr has its roots in Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” which was published in The Atlantic in 2008.
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