Paste your essay in here..The book, “The Shallows; What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr details the author’s personal account on how today’s technology and society’s frequently growing interest in the modern tools and products may be affecting us negatively. Has technology made reading and writing obsolete? Or have we just expanded the way we retain information? Carr expresses his opinion on the idea of technology and what it encompasses, referring to common day tools and teaching methods as forms of technology. Carr compares our brains to computers and the use of the alphabet as a method of technology. Technology is a necessary part of our everyday life, but is that because we’ve created it to do so or is it due to the progression of technology that we’ve allowed it to overcompensate for parts of our mind. Carr argues that technology has in ways become a detriment to humanity because of people reliance on products and tool that would otherwise be unnecessary to the process of learning and teaching in the pre-millennial days of civilization. Carr states how the use of the common map was a necessary thought-provoking stimulant as a tool that our minds used to process information using our vision. “The map is a medium that not only stores and transmits information but also embodies a particular mode of seeing and thinking” (41). Carr makes constant comparisons to tools and their use as stimuli for us. This is where the use of reading and writing in Chapter 4 become the basis or Carr’s argument, Carr faults the advancement of modern technology and resources for the reason why people don’t want to resort to older forms of technology. Carr also states the use of clocks as essential mediums for civilization as our eyes were use as computing modules for our bran to process. Carr attributes are survival from middle ages into later periods of time. “The mechanical clock changed the way we saw ourselves. … Once the clock had redefined time as a series of units of equal duration, our minds began to stress the methodical mental work of division and measurement. … The clock played a crucial role in propelling us out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance and then the Enlightenment period (43). Carr’s judgments on pre-modern technologies shape his tone throughout the following chapters. While he’s assertions carry a more rejecting tenor towards the progression of technology, his examples and descriptions do force the reader to view themselves and their own personal utilization of common day to day technologies currently. When’s the last time you’ve looked at non-digital clock? When’s the last time you’ve read and viewed a map? Or shockingly enough, when’s the last time you’ve picked up a book for any purpose? Carr denounces society as a collective for letting the role of reading and writing lose its importance to individuals currently. Carr states the importance of the techniques of reading and writings because civilization has grown so accustomed to the use and convenience of information and how easily it can be accessed without doing and real thought-provoking research. Carr believes that the current society has abandoned the uses of tools and resources that have brought us to where we are today as far as technology is concerned. Cognitive skills that humans have acquire from utilizing skills and techniques such as reading, writing or the application of a map or clock have advanced our society further in Carr’s estimation and we as a people seem to be straying away from that due to the inevitable growth of technology.
In Chapter 7, Carr states his position on the direct effects of the internet on our brains, essentially stating that the consistent use of the internet has caused our brains to become stagnant in growth. “The Net’s cacophony of stimuli short-circuits both conscious and unconscious thought, preventing our minds from thinking deeply or creatively. Our brains turn into simple single-processing units, quickly shepherding information into consciousness and then back out again (119). Carr believes the internet has become the main resource of information. It has become easier to type in a question than look in a book that would require us to do some critical and analytical thinking. “The Net provides a high-speed system for delivering responses and rewards-'positive reinforcements', in psychological terms which encourage the repetition of both physical and mental actions" (p117). The internet has many different aspects and is incorporated into many new mediums of technologies, new ways to communicate, different forms of entertainment and research. The "positive reinforcements" that Carr mentions is what makes the internet engaging or almost addicting to society. Society is in constant motion and we are growing as technology grows daily. The Net is simple to access and most of the time convenient. It can be interpreted that some of the "positive reinforcements" to be is things such as being able to easily connect through video-chatting, Facebook, and these social networking sites that connect all around the world. It can provide entertainment such as YouTube, online videos, games sites, etc. The use of the internet for research or even as simple as looking up the weather, keep informed with the news, or simply to read articles. There are various things on the Net that help us and grab our attention, but in Carr’s estimation this can serve as a major detriment. Carr states that "The Net seizes our attention only to scatter it" (p118). It is easy to assume that society has over-indulged in the internet. Due to its many functions and capabilities sometimes a simple task such as checking a personal email can turn into a shopping session or entertainment break. Carr also states that heavy use of the Internet causes neurological affects or changes in the brain. “Neuroplasticity” Carr refers to the process the brain endures in response to experiences. Basically, as we continue to do things, our mind builds a cognitive response to the experiences we face. Carr argues that because people are not actually experiencing things anymore.
In the beginning of Chapter 3, Carr describes the old generational tension between historians and philosophers over the role technology plays in shaping civilization. Carr breaks down both groups by traits and gives examples of scholars that follow both characteristics. A Determinist is a person who views the progress of technology as a process without power and more so attribute the progression to the progression of humans. An instrumentalist is a person who views technology as a means to an end, a neutral process in which an instrument serves its purpose as nothing more and nothing less. Carr highlights Karl Marx, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Marshall McLuhan as carrying a determinist mindset and aligns and explains in his opinion why the determinist mindset is accurate. Carr explains the theory of "intellectual technologies" such as reading a map or looking at a clock. He attributes the use of those technologies to the growth of humans and the growth of the human mind. Carr states “these innate technologies help to find and classify information, to formulate and articulate ideas, to share know-how and knowledge, to take measurements and perform calculations, to expand the capacity of our memory” (44). Agreeing with the argument that technology goes as our minds continue to expand and grow. Carr refers to other authors, historians and psychologists to support his viewpoint, but also refers to authors with an opposing outlook, Author Steven Johnson discusses how video games are beneficial to cognitive skills in his book “Everything bad is good for you; How today’s popular culture is making us smarter”. Johnson essentially attributes the growth of our brains to the growth of technology and specifically the use of video games and how our brains computes information to play the game. Carr provides a direct rebuttal to Johnson’s argument and states that “While Johnson’s diagnosis is correct, his interpretation of the differing patterns of brain activity is misleading. It is the very fact that book reading ‘under-stimulates the senses’ that makes the activity so intellectually rewarding. By allowing us to filter out distractions, to quiet the problem-solving functions of the frontal lobes, deep reading becomes a form of deep thinking. The mind of the experienced book reader is a calm mind, not a buzzing one. (65) Carr maintains his argument that there is reward in reading because it doesn’t allow us to just get the answer but makes us put our brain to work to critically analyze and solve problems or gain understanding. He uses it as a counterargument to his beliefs. Johnson believes that reading on paper is less engaging, therefore, we don’t withdraw what we would from other mediums. Carr says that in part, he is correct, but what Johnson isn’t considering is in factoring distractions. We might not be engaged with paperback, but Carr’s point is that the less distractions we have means that whatever we do learn from a book, we do remember it better. That is linking back to the long-term memory.
Physically, brains are like computers. Both are the command center for the object. There are pathways (neural circuits/wires), there are commands (kick/open application), there are reboots (sleep/shut down). However, Nicholas Carr and the studies he found would like to differ on how the brain does not form and hold memories like computers. Memories are slowly processed into our brains, not automatically separated into folders with quick links to each. The computer automatically saves information and memories into the correct spaces. On the other hand, the hippocampus holds new memories in place as they are slowly consolidated into a more permanent section of the brain (Carr, 189).
By thinking of the brain as a computer, one comes to believe that there is near unlimited space in the brain, like the computer, or that one can be able to control the brain’s data space, also like a computer. This isn’t completely possible though and computers are much more easily controlled than the brain. To imply that the brain is like the computer is to imply that the brain is much simpler than it actually is. The brain is so complex that it hasn’t even been fully explored or understood yet.
Though there are similarities between the brain and a computer, they are not the same and cannot be considered similar in all cases, especially in memory processing. While physically, the brain contains like ways to control itself and the body as the computer does, the brain processes memories in slower, gradual way than the computer. By comparing the brain to the computer, we diminish the brain’s full capacities and simplify it too much
An interesting point Carr made was that the Internet has changed the way traditional products are made. Now, I don’t read papers or magazines and I can’t remember the last time I did. If I need news, I go to YouTube, but I can see how this is true. Magazines, journals, and newspapers no longer contain long articles, detailing every point and argument. There are now little blurbs, bold titles, colorful pictures, and short articles. People want a quick view of what’s happening. Since they can’t jump from link to article to blog to site in a newspaper, companies had to make the papers as close as possible to keep a reader interested. With the ease of the net, why go to old news articles. I want my information now and as up-to-date as humanly possible.
This is why so many newspapers and magazines have been trimming the fat: so they don’t have to shut down. But this won’t work forever. Eventually, newspapers will be gone and books will an antique that some will collect, at least in my opinion. I’ve had many a conversation with my dad about companies working with paper products, such as bookstores, will keep their stores open and running. I believe that many without a new strategy, bookstores will eventually close up shop.