Book Review Of 'The Shallowss' By Nicholas Carr

A huge beneficial effect of the Internet is time-efficiency because it no longer takes days to find research. Fortunately, it only takes a couple of minutes to do a few Google searches. Another benefit to the Internet, in comparison to the last example, is that it is a channel for most of the world’s information. For Carr, as for others, the Internet is becoming a universal medium. Lastly, it is probable that we may be doing more reading today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was a choice of interest. It is assumed that we may do more reading today because not only do we have access to a variety of texts, but also a numerous amount of ways of communicating. For example, social media accounts and text-messaging. A negative effect of the Internet is that it is chipping away capacity for contemplation. The Internet is

In his book "The Shallows," Nicholas Carr claims, “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. At the very least, it’s the most powerful that has come along since the book” (Carr, 118). Carr supports this claim through examining other early inventions of man, such as the book, and using other 's opinions and evidence to prove the Net can alter the mind. The author suggests that because of this new mind-altering technology, we are in a modern renaissance. Carr establishes a cautionary tone for his audience, anyone who does and will use the Net, to raise awareness of how the Internet is refining people 's minds.

As Carr continues, he speaks of his extended use of the internet over the last decade, explaining that all information that he once painstakingly searched for is done in minutes with the use of search engines. In doing this, Carr places blame on the internet for breaking his ability to concentrate. Carr presents his arguments in a way that his readers could easily agree. He gradually works up to the idea that the internet has weakened his ability to focus, and as he does this he makes several general statements about the internet’s nature. These points on the net’s nature are so basic that any reader of his article would be inclined to agree with them, and this lends itself to help readers believe the argument Carr wishes to propose. Because it would be hard to provide factual evidence to support his claims, Carr effectively uses logical reasoning to convince the reader.

The author then noted the positive ways the Internet has influenced his life. yet, when he states, “But that boon comes at a price,” his tone immediately changes from appreciative to concerned. This change in tone shows that Carr is beginning to dive deeper into his topic. Additionally, his positive section acts as a counterargument.

Carr mentions his personal experience with technology and how it has affected him. He points out his “concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages” (961). Carr isn’t the only one who has been affected by technology; he tells us that even his “acquaintances” have had similar experiences. His acquaintances say, “The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (962). What once used to come natural to us has become difficult. People used to rely on books for multiple reasons when it came to research but now that technology has been used more frequently books are not that common. Carr says “Research that once required days . . . can be done in minutes” (962). Carr is mentioning the benefits of the Internet, for his argument he is using both sides so that the reader can relate to his article and understand where he is coming from. Carr quotes Marshall McLuhan when he points out that “the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (962). Although fast research is great and easy to access it has its flaws. Carr mentions that

In the excerpt “What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains”, Carr suggest the Internet is having an effect on

Nicholas Carr covers an unprecedented amount of material in his novel, “The Shallows.” He delves into subjects ranging from the history of the book to the business of Google to the psychological concept of neuroplasticity. All of these topics support his main argument: the idea that the internet is destroying our brains. He takes the deterministic approach that we are the tools we use, meaning they shape our brains. According to Carr, the internet negates our memories, deems print books useless, and distracts us from reality. His counterargument comes from the instrumentalist approach; this viewpoint maintains that people stay the same no matter the tools they use. His arguments are both sound and flimsy, current and outdated, and he rants

One of Carr’s main points is that the internet is actually bad for society as a whole because constantly using the internet will lead to a dumber society. This is just a way for Carr to say that someone who uses the internet is not as smart as someone who uses it less often. He later states that humans are losing some of their cognitive thinking abilities making us act more robotic and if everyone will eventually become this way if we keep using the internet. This idea is used to scare people into stop using the internet and is an effective method for Carr to get his point across. Another way he scares people is he mentions a future where kids don’t read in class but will instead watch videos and won’t know how to spell due to spellcheck and this will lead to a decline in our education system.

According to Nicholas Carr, the internet has had an effect on how we read, think and live. He provides examples of this throughout his essay. In one of his statements he says “the net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information [we receive]” (732) He gathers this information from other colleagues and friends he knows. People can access the internet and in a few clicks to have all the information they need and more. We are no longer limited by local sources to gather our data. At the speed of light, the voices of millions can be heard by all. It is the quick access and our human desire for knowledge that feeds the need for the internet. It has damaged our level of patience and causing our minds to wander. “And what

Carr gives a very well researched report of how the writing on the internet is deemed to cause the browsing experience to be fast and profitable. He explained how the internet is set up to make other people profit, how our analytical reasoning skills and study spans are diminishing in the process. He definiens what we are wasting by adopting the internet as the

In his article “The Shallows”, Nicholas G. Carr explains to his readers how reading & writing came to be, it 's effects on the brain, and what both Plato and Socrates thought about the subjects.

The internet has revolutionized the world. The internet users can easily access from any data from around the world. However, the internet was also made the users less critical thinkers since the data obtain can be easily found online instead of reading it from a print book. Two sources in particular, Nicholas Carr, “Shallows” and Michael’s Aggers, interview with Clive Thompson “Smarter than you think” have recently argued how the internet has changed our memory and ways of thinking. The internet is bad for your brain because it limits your knowledge of memorization and XXXXXXX .In the book Shallows by Carr, he states. “The arrival of the limitless and easily searchable data banks of the Internet brought a further shift, not just in the way

In Carr’s description of the Internet, he explains why it is affecting humans. He leaves the technology as a virus that absorbs our commands, injects information into us, and then scatters and spreads our concentration. However, before labeling the Internet as a human made pest that has gone wild, Carr makes one last appeal to ethos by stating possible benefits of this rapidly capable means of statement as well as his own faults of being a worrywart.

The internet has been around for a few decades now and several people are accustomed to using it in their everyday lives. Recently however, an author named Nicholas Carr published a book arguing that the internet is not good for us, and our brains. He claims that the internet is making us into shallow individuals, hence the name of his book, The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains. After reading this book, I must agree with Carr’s argument that the internet is altering our mindsets.

Carr’s entire argument is how the internet is making the population weak minded, which is easily clearly arguable with the resources available to us now. Some examples of resources are online school, library databases, educational games, daily newspapers, and even books are now sold online and school is being provided online to be more accessible to us. The hyperlinks that Carr mentions in his article as we “power browse” (1), in fact the internet/google is more helpful in going further into a subject being studied. For instance if someone is trying to research a sickness, the search starts with google, entering the sickness which leads them to an article, possibly Wikipedia, then a hyperlink is introduced to a subject they aren’t educated on, one would read further to gain more helpful