[rating:3]
(New York: W.W. Horton and Company, 2010)
276 pgs
Nicholas Carr has written a thoughtful, insightful, well-researched, and somewhat alarming book on the effect the Internet is having on society. We are all familiar with studies that show a correlation between such things as the use of video games and teen violence, or childhood obesity. But this study goes much deeper and in many ways is more disturbing. It suggests that the widespread use of the Internet today is changing the way our brains work. He presents a lot of compelling evidence.
Carr begins by citing Marshall McLuhan who famously wrote, “The medium is the message” (2). He goes on to argue that computers which have been designed to make our lives easier, have begun to shape our lives and even change the physical nature of our brains. He argues, “The computer screen bulldozes our doubts with its bounties and conveniences. It is so much our servant that it would seem churlish to notice that it is also our master” (4).
Carr delves into far more science than this history major is used to reading. However, he draws out the findings of numerous scientific studies that demonstrate some troubling realities. He notes that our brains physically adapt to the kind of thinking we are doing. For example, it has been demonstrated that taxi drivers have a more developed area of the brain that is used to remember spatial information and to navigate distances. However, with the increasing use of GPS devices, that part of taxi driver’s brains is actually decreasing as it is no longer needed to the same degree.
Another study was done measuring peoples’ brains. Half the group was skilled at surfing the Internet, the other half were not. The experienced group’s brains all demonstrated greater development in the area that is related to such skills. Yet in only five days of practice, the novices’ brains had adjusted and changed through practice. Amazingly, scientists saw that the brain had physically changed in only five days of regular exposure to the Internet (121).
Carr points out that the development of reading dramatically changed society from an oral culture to a literary one (53). He notes “The written word liberated knowledge from the bounds of individual memory and freed language from the rhythmical and formulaic structures required to support memorization and recitation” (57). He concludes: “The achievements of the western world, it is obvious, are testimony to the tremendous values of literacy” (57). Our brains have been traditionally developed around reading and writing. However, that is now changing.
Carr notes that the natural state of the brain is to be distracted (63). It takes discipline to read deeply and thoughtfully. Yet he argues that such deep thought brings deep insight. He suggests: “To read a book was to practice an unnatural process of thought, one that demanded sustained, unbroken attention to a single, static object” (64). “’Deep reading . . . is by no means a passive exercise.’ The reader becomes the book” (74).
Carr then cites numerous studies that reveal what we know intuitively, that the Internet is designed to constantly interrupt and distract our mind rather than to allow it to focus deeply on subject. He quotes numerous people, some who are authors and college students, who confess they have great difficulty reading an entire book any more. They have become so used to blog-length articles or computer screen lengths of text, that to flip through 300 pages seems like an eternity. Furthermore, the Internet text is filled with hyperlinks so that after less than a paragraph, you can click on the link and transfer to a related cite with interesting, new material that also has hyperlinks that take you still further from your original text. An hour later you have barely dealt with the text at hand but in the mean time you have glanced through several other articles, checked several incoming e-mails, read several Facebook messages, and ordered a new magazine from Amazon. The Internet is a master at distraction! What is most alarming is not that the Internet does this as much as that our brains are being re-wired so that we come to depend on this and to be unable to turn our focused attention on the traditional exercise of actually reading a book, thoughtfully.
Carr cites studies that demonstrate that our “working memory” can only retain up to seven items (124). After that, items are lost. Yet the typical computer screen is flashing various alerts and incoming messages to us constantly while we scan its pages. Interestingly, he mentions studies that show that students who were exposed to audiovisual presentations actually remembered less of the material than those who simply read from a book (131). He also notes that studies have shown that people who read Internet text typically read less than 18% of what is on a page (135). This, even when doing academic research. He concludes: “Once a means to an end, scanning is becoming an end in itself” (138). We are becoming a people who merely scan texts without thinking deeply about them.
Multitasking has become so prevalent today that it is having a profound impact on how we think. He notes: “What we are doing when we multitask ‘is learning to be skilled at a superficial level’” (141). Even more troubling, “Intensive multitaskers are ‘suckers for irrelevancy’” (142). Carr explains how our mind transfers short term memory into long term memory. This is best done when we focus. Of course, the nature of the Internet is to distract us. Again, he argues that the Internet is preventing us from remembering the same amount of information we retain when we carefully read a book.
Carr also challenges the modern assumptions that the Internet, with its vast store of related sites and links makes the educational process far more effective. It seems archaic to ask modern students to memorize passages when Google can find whatever they want instantly. Yet he concludes: “We don’t constrain our mental powers when we store new memories. We strengthen them. With each expansion of our memory comes an enlargement of our intelligence” (192). He argues forcefully that the nature of the Internet is actually dumbing down our brains. He cites studies that demonstrate that students who solved problems with high-tech software actually retained less information and understanding than those who had less computer assistance. He concluded: “The brighter the software the dimmer the user” (216). He also notes that with the prevalence of search engines such as Google, today, research is made easier in many ways. However, search engines “Tend to serve as amplifiers of popularity” (217). Rather than taking researchers to obscure sites and lesser-known articles, it takes you to the place most often travelled by other researchers. Again, our tools are determining what we learn and how we learn it. He suggests: “We program our computers and thereafter they program us” (214).
Finally, he demonstrates how the Internet is even affecting our emotions. He shows how our minds can only process so much information at once. If we do not have time to reflect on information, we cannot determine how we feel about the data. We do not focus long enough to form an educated opinion. As a result, we are accustomed to surface reading and surface feeling. He warns: “We shouldn’t allow the glories of technology to blind our inner watch dog to the possibility that we’ve numbed an essential part of our self” (212).
This book is not for everyone. It is filled with scientific studies that may take you past your biological and technological expertise (as it quickly did for me!). Carr also comes from an evolutionary perspective. At times he can sound like an alarmist.
However, it would be naïve to assume that the prevalent use of the Internet and electronic media is not having an effect on us. Just think about your own reading habits. When was the last time you read a 400+ page book on a serious subject? Are you reading more Online than from physical pages these days? When was the last time you read an article or book that pushed your level of understanding and knowledge? Leaders must be thinkers. We must solve problems. And, today’s problems require more than shallow, surface thinking. Could it be that, with all the benefits that result from technology, that it is also enslaving us to a level where we no longer are able to think as deeply as we need to? Could our tools be in the process of becoming our master? This is an interesting book and one that raises some provocative questions.