The Shallows
What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
by Nicholas Carr
Advance praise for The Shallows:
“Neither a tub-thumpingly alarmist jeremiad nor a breathlessly Panglossian ode to the digital self, Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows is a deeply thoughtful, surprising exploration of our ‘frenzied’ psyches in the age of the Internet. Whether you do it in pixels or pages, read this book.” —Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic
“Nicholas Carr carefully examines the most important topic in contemporary culture — the mental and social transformation created by our new electronic environment. Without ever losing sight of the larger questions at stake, he calmly demolishes the clichés that have dominated discussions about the Internet. Witty, ambitious, and immensely readable, The Shallows actually manages to describe the weird, new, artificial world in which we now live.” —Dana Gioia, poet and former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
“Nicholas Carr has written an important and timely book. See if you can stay off the web long enough to read it!” —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe
“The core of education is this: developing the capacity to concentrate. The fruits of this capacity we call civilization. But all that is finished, perhaps. Welcome to the shallows, where the un-educating of homo sapiens begins. Nicholas Carr does a wonderful job synthesizing the recent cognitive research. In doing so, he gently refutes the ideologists of progress, and shows what is really at stake in the daily habits of our wired lives: the re-constitution of our minds. What emerges for the reader, inexorably, is the suspicion that we have well and truly screwed ourselves.” —Matthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class As Soulcraft
“Ultimately, The Shallows is a book about the preservation of the human capacity for contemplation and wisdom, in an epoch where both appear increasingly threatened. Nick Carr provides a thought-provoking and intellectually courageous account of how the medium of the Internet is changing the way we think now and how future generations will or will not think. Few works could be more important.” —Maryanne Wolf, director of the Tufts University Center for Reading and Language Research and author of Proust and the Squid
“Not long ago, Thomas Friedman declared our new electronic world, with its leveled competitive field, ‘flat.’ Now, Nicholas Carr, marshaling scientific evidence, looks at the inner world of our brains, finding the impact of new technology there much the same: flattened memories, imaginations, and thinking capacities. We need this book in a deep way.” —Eric Brende, author of Better Off
Reviews and notices:
“In his new book, The Shallows, Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.” –Michael Agger, Slate
“Carr provides a deep, enlightening examination of how the Internet influences the brain and its neural pathways ... His fantastic investigation of the effect of the Internet on our neurological selves concludes with a very humanistic petition for balancing our human and computer interactions ... Highly recommended.” [starred review] —Library Journal
“Carr is an astute critic of the information technology revolution. Here he looks to neurological science to gauge the organic impact of computers, citing fascinating experiments that contrast the neural pathways built by reading books versus those forged by surfing the hypnotic Internet ... Carr’s fresh, lucid, and engaging assessment of our infatuation with the Web is provocative and revelatory.” —Booklist
“Carr is a great writer . . . This is a must-read for any desk jockey concerned about the Web’s deleterious effects on the mind. Grade: A.” –Newsweek
“Absorbing [and] disturbing. We all joke about how the Internet is turning us, and especially our kids, into fast-twitch airheads incapable of profound cogitation. It's no joke, Mr. Carr insists, and he has me persuaded.” —John Horgan, Wall Street Journal
“The subtitle of Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains leads one to expect a polemic in the tradition of those published in the 1950s about how rock ’n’ roll was corrupting the nation’s youth ... But this is no such book. It is a patient and rewarding popularisation of some of the research being done at the frontiers of brain science ... Mild-mannered, never polemical, with nothing of the Luddite about him, Carr makes his points with a lot of apt citations and wide-ranging erudition.” —Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times
“Only by combining data stored deep within our brains can we forge new ideas. No amount of magpie assemblage can compensate for this slow, synthetic creativity. Hyperlinks and overstimulation mean the brain must give most of its attention to short-term decisions. Little makes it through the fragile transfer into deeper processing. Clearly, argues Mr Carr, this is a radical upending of the ‘literate mind’ that has been the hallmark of civilisation for more than 1,000 years. From a society that valued the creation of a unique storehouse of ideas in each individual, man is moving to a socially constructed mind that values speed and group approval over originality and creativity.” –The Economist
“Carr argues that we are sabotaging ourselves, trading away the seriousness of sustained attention for the frantic superficiality of the Internet ... This is a measured manifesto. Even as Carr bemoans his vanishing attention span, he’s careful to note the usefulness of the Internet, which provides us with access to a near infinitude of information. We might be consigned to the intellectual shallows, but these shallows are as wide as a vast ocean.” —Jonah Lehrer, New York Times Book Review
“Required reading for anyone who wants a cogent, comprehensive, and thoroughly researched statement of the techno-fears that, in however inchoate a way, many of us have harbored for going on a few decades now.” –Daniel Menaker, Barnes & Noble Review
“If you care about your own ability to think and read deeply, please treat yourself to Carr's book.” –Carol Keeley, Ploughshares
“Measured but alarming ... Carr brilliantly brings together numerous studies and experiments to support this astounding argument: ‘With the exception of alphabets and number systems, the Net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use.’ –Will Buchanan, Christian Science Monitor
“You really should read Nicholas Carr's The Shallows . . . Far from offering a series of rants on the dangers of new media, Carr spends chapters walking us through a variety of historical experiments and laymen's explanations on the workings of the brain . . . He makes the research stand on end, punctuating it with pithy conclusions and clever phrasing.” —Fritz Nelson, Information Week
“The subtitle is literal ... Carr provides evidence from batteries of neuroscientific research projects, which suggest that the more we use the Internet as an appendage of memory, the less we remember, and the more we use it as an aide to thinking, the less we think ... Cogent, urgent and well worth reading.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The Shallows certainly isn't the first examination of this subject, but it's more lucid, concise and pertinent than similar works ... An essential, accessible dispatch about how we think now.” —Laura Miller, Salon
“The picture of our intellectual future, rendered thoroughly, convincingly, and often beautifully in Carr’s text, is bleak enough to give any serious mind some serious pause ... The postliterate being whom Carr conjures up is a subtle sort of monster. He grows more menacing the longer you stare at him. This creature processes visual signals and forms memories differently than his more book-reliant ancestors. He is incapable of reflection or contemplation and doesn't care to remember much. He is limited in terms of his capacity for original thought, having spent his entire life tailoring his communications to meet the expectations of an ever-vigilant network of so-called peers. He communicates constantly but only in sparse bursts. He can think with great speed but can not know anything with certainty ... What is perhaps most frightening about the phantom of The Shallows, this ghost of our collective future self, is how much, and how quickly, we have come to resemble him already.” —Patrick Tucker, The Futurist
“If you retain any residual aspirations for literary repartee, prefer the smell of a book to a mouse and, most important, enjoy the quiet meanderings within your own mind that can be triggered by a good bit of prose, you are the person to whom Nicholas Carr has addressed his riveting new book, The Shallows.” –Robert Burton, San Francisco Chronicle
“The author of ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’ returns to his thesis at book-length — but can our web-truncated attention spans handle so much prose? With Carr at the wheel, the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ . . . The Shallows is a guide for understanding — and even regaining control of — your brain on the internet.” –Seed
“Carr presents a damning case against a life jacked into the Net, including the startling revelation that prolonged usage alters our brain physiology ... The achievement of The Shallows isn't that it persuades you to give up the Web. Instead, it encourages you to be mindful of your screen time and remember that the Internet is the tool, not you.” –Martin Schmutterer, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Carr’s book not only shows how science and technology really do affect the smallest details of your everyday life in ways you didn’t expect, but also offers clarity in the understanding of your biological self and how that relates to the way you live your life. If nothing else, it’s an essential manual to self-discovery — it offers the sort of revelations that really can help you improve your life. Entirely unexpected, it’s the kind of self help book that matters.” —John E. Mitchell, North Adams Transcript
“The Shallows isn’t McLuhan’s Understanding Media, but the curiosity rather than trepidation with which Carr reports on the effects of online culture pulls him well into line with his predecessor . . . Carr’s ability to crosscut between cognitive studies involving monkeys and eerily prescient prefigurations of the modern computer opens a line of inquiry into the relationship between human and technology. —Ellen Wernecke, The Onion A.V. Club
“Carr is an excellent writer. One of those non-fiction writers in the league with people like Malcolm Gladwell and Dan Ariely who can teach and entertain at the same time.” –Jim Randel, Huffington Post
“Turn off the computer, put away the smartphone. Get a copy of The Shallows, and read it. I promise you, it'll be worth it.” –Terry Lavender, Vancouver Observer
“Excellent ... a marvelous synthesis of neurobiology, textual history, sociology, literary criticism, psychology, and more. Carr does exceptional work, smartly laying the groundwork - both scientific and historical - that helps the reader appreciate the unnerving implications of our rapid, at times manic, movement into the shallow mental world of the internet, and especially the implications of the claims made by those who breezily or shoulder-shruggingly apologize for it.” —Russell Arben Fox, Director of Political Science Program, Friends University, and author of In Medias Res blog
“Once I started reading it, I didn’t stop. I was wholeheartedly absorbed in the text from start to finish . . . Whatever you think of the thesis Carr sets forth in The Shallows, the book is just so beautifully crafted that it commands your attention . . . I recommend you read it. All of it. Slowly.” —Adam Thierer, Technology Liberation Front
“Outstanding ... a shrewd, compelling overview of how an ever-changing, always growing technology has changed us ... In measured, calm prose, Carr (who, yes, uses the Internet) interprets a staggering amount of scientific evidence and social history to show how we shouldn’t allow the Internet and its accompanying practices to dictate our lives. Carr’s goal is to raise awareness, which he does with gentle eloquence, making it more inviting to digest the eye-opening studies.” —BookPage
“Carr has synthesized a wealth of cognitive research to illustrate how the Internet is changing the way we process information ... He makes a convincing case that we are altering our brains with every ping and click-though.” –Caitlin Roper, Los Angeles Times
“Persuasive ... A prolific blogger, tech pundit, and author, {Carr] cites enough academic research in The Shallows to give anyone pause about society's full embrace of the Internet as an unadulterated force for progress . . . Carr lays out, in engaging, accessible prose, the science that may explain these results.” —Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek
“Another reason for book lovers not to throw in the towel quite yet is The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr, a quietly eloquent retort to those who claim that digital culture is harmless — who claim, in fact, that we're getting smarter by the minute just because we can plug in a computer and allow ourselves to get lost in the funhouse of endless hyperlinks.” –Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune
“We are living through something of a backlash against the frenzy of attention dispersion, a backlash for which Carr’s book will become canonical.” –Todd Gitlin, The New Republic
“[Carr] puts his finger on the dark irony of the tech age: In the search for unlimited information and connectivity, we have also provided ourselves with an infinite scope for distraction.” –Leah McLaren, Globe and Mail
“It turns out the human brain is a shape shifter, the technical term being ‘neuroplasticity.’ The phenomenon is not easy to explain, but Carr is adept at explaining with as little jargon as possible ... It is not enough for Carr to explain the contemporary brain alterations linked to regular Internet use. He puts neuroplasticity into historical context.” –Steve Weinberg, USA Today
“My own experience as a heavy (and often heavily distracted) user of Web-based technology tells me Carr is on the right track. At the very least, his book is worth reading with your iPhone turned off and your Tweets on hold.” –Bill Snyder, Computerworld