The Shallows By Nicholas Carr

In The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, he asserts that the evolution of information and communication technology (ICTs) is having a detrimental impact on our brains despite the many benefits and advances we have made with it. His main focus is on the internet which he commonly refers to as the “universal medium” (92). Carr presents a very detailed but biased argument in which he views the internet and other technologies as the adversary of critical thinking and progress. To Carr, we are sacrificing our ability to think logically because we are choosing a simpler way to gain knowledge.

Nicholas Carr, author of the novel “The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains” explains in his works that media and technology is affecting the way our brain works and is used in our daily lives. Carr states, “The price we pay to assume technology’s power is alienation. The toll can be particularly high with our intellectual technologies. The tools of the mind amplify and in turn numb the most intimate, the most human, of our natural capacities - those for reason, perception, memory, emotion.”(Carr, 211) Carr continues to explain an interesting phenomena that occurred in society within the

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.

In the novel ‘Feed’, M.T Anderson proposed a human can have a small chip placed in the head, that feeds them the best deals, and latest trends, as well as providing all the functions laptops and cell phones used today could provide, and in having this chip implanted in their heads, it encourages buying the best bargains and purchasing the latest products, and keeping up with the trends that are changing daily. Throughout the Novel, Anderson plays with the idea technology as negative effects on society. He shows a society where people’s ability to think is decreasing, as is their emotional capacity, where corporations run the system and have let the environment suffer because of it. He shows a society where advertising and consumerism are driving the human race, and reducing people’s humanity.

The Internet is something that some consider their lifesavers, while others believe that it takes their life away. The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr is a novel that explores the different areas of how new technologies affect humans in different ways, regarding multi-tasking and distractions, to how new technologies make us lose a little part of ourselves. Throughout the book Carr puts forward very strong arguments, but then loses creditability with his use of fallacies in argument.

Carr stated, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of worlds. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” Carr gets quotes from authorities who have the same view as him, as evidence to support his argument. For example, the author mentions a blogger, Bruce Friedman, who explains, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or print. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.” The author also mentions other prominent sources such as Scott Karp, Maryanne Wolf, and even scientists like James Olds and Joseph Weizenbaum. The author’s credible sources all share his view on the argument, which makes his point more convincing. Carr describes how technology, such as the clock and the typewriter, has had an effect on the mind. Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter when he was having trouble with his writing. Using the typewriter made “his already terse prose even tighter, more telegraphic.”

Nicholas Carr is an American author who writes the majority of books and articles about the continuously evolving world of technology and how it is effecting our society. Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times bestseller. In this essay I will be rhetorically analyzing Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid” published in 2008. The purpose of Carr’s essay was to bring light to an issue that many of us face but only a meniscal few have come to terms with; and that is that technology is mentally incapacitating our society and simultaneously making us lazy. This essay was intended for anyone was has been consumed in today’s culture by new technological advances to the extent of not being able to function without some sort of device, IE cellphone, laptop or tablet on a daily basis.

Over history technology has changed mankind’s overall culture. From clocks to computers the use of electronics and tools is occurring every day in almost all situations. In Carr’s article “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he introduces the idea how the internet is changing our lives by making us mentally process information differently from the past, based off previous changes in history. Carr explains how we think less deeply and rely on quick facts, versus using critical thinking and research. Also he explains how our brain is malleable, and may be changed by the internet’s impression. Lastly Carr talks about what the

Vital Paths is the title of the second chapter in Nicolas G. Carr's book, The Shallows. This chapter continues Carr's argument, posed in chapter one, in highlighting the dangers of the internet, regarding our cognitive abilities. Specifically on format, this chapter argues for our brains neurological flexibility through an array of examples, ranging from historical observations to scientific experiments, and ends cautioning that with malleability negative neurological effects are plausible.

Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, questions the impact the technology has upon our lives. He argues that the internet prevents our ability to engage in deep reading and thus restricts our ability to think critically. He says this is due to the idea of neuroplasticity, which is where our brains change in order to adapt to the different stimuli it encounters. When books were first introduced, our brain had to rewire itself in order to achieve the ability to focus for long periods of time on text and to think deeply about it. This resulted in a literate deep thinker. However, the internet has forced our brain to rewire itself again. Carr says that “there is evidence that the cells of our brains literally develop and grow bigger with use, and atrophy or waste away with disuse” (22). Our brain has many structures that perform specific functions and the structures associated with deep thinking can decrease and eventually will serve no function if we don’t use it. We are much better thsn our ancestors. According to Carr, “the oral world of our distant ancestors may well have had emotional and intuitive depths we can no longer appreciate” (56). In other words, Carr believes that people in the past engaged in focused, immersed thinking. I believe that Nicholas Carr is right when he says that the internet is changing the way we think, however I don’t believe that we need to turn off the internet in order to reduce the chances of losing

Throughout the course of history, humans have made great technological advancements. During the Renaissance, the printing press had revolutionized all of Europe; the accessibility of books had become universal, and people learned how to read and write. Because of the printing press, people became smarter and humanity had made a huge advancement into the modern world. In the 21st century, however, there is a growing issue; even though humans are becoming smarter, the human brain has suffered a negative impact from the internet. In the book, "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," by Nicholas Carr, Carr discusses how the internet completely changes the way people think. Because of the internet, our ability to think deeply,

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr is a compilation of critiques on current societal trends and observations of brain studies intermittently mixed with his reminiscing about how the world was before the mainstream adoption of the internet. Throughout the book, Carr expresses concerns that if humanity does not stop or change the way we interact with the internet, attention spans will plummet and deep thinking as we know it may cease to exist. I enjoyed this novel as an avid technologist for the fact that it provided well structured versions of the arguments technophobes have been using for years. Being able to switch my perspective through this book gives me new insights on why people are afraid of technological advancements and aids me in calming

Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, written by Nicholas Carr, written of

Nicholas Carr published The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains in 2011 as a result of his own personal experiences and observations of his own behavior. The book was published by W.W. Norton & Company with ISBN 978-0-393-33975-8. Carr began working on the book after he noticed that since the birth of the internet, he did not think in the same ways that he used to think; he was easily distracted and had trouble concentrating on tasks requiring a lot of thought (2011). This effect, he noticed, was not unique to him. Many of his colleagues reported that they too had lost a lot of interest in reading books, had trouble concentrating and were easily distracted (Carr, 2011). What if, Carr wondered, everyone doesn’t just prefer to do their reading on the internet for its inherent convenience and speed but rather, what if the internet was actually changing the way we all think?

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.