The Shallows – What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Paperback – 3 Mar. 2020

If you want to understand what is happening to our minds in relation to the Internet or anything else why ask someone with a degree in American Literature? Ask as webscientist, ask the Oxford Internet Institute, ask a psychologist or neuroscientist. And read empirical research rather than hear say with a muddle-headed hypothesis that Carr is determined to prove ... by citing Plutarch and Socrates.Carr is no neuroscientist - three decades ago he took a first degree in English Literature (Dartmouth College) followed by a Masters in American Literature (Harvard). He should stick to what he knows.As a book it is a remarkably satisfactory artifact. There is no e-Book version. Which is ironic. It would also have saved me some money.Even in paper back the cover has a wonderful fine grittiness to it - like sand. I even open the book and breathed it in. For this experience 10/10. All publishers, especially those online, need to take trouble with the Art Work too. Of course the plaudits sing out 'buy me, buy me' but as reviews go they are about as helpful as one liners on the latest blockbuster.Carr writes well enough, not quite Bill Bryson, but an easy and intelligent read, an amble through the relevant technologies to the present day.Carr can be accepted as a cultural and social historian, his mistake is to want to want bash this evidence into shape to support his conception of the Internet and its dangers. It is like saying that `rural man' is different to `urban man', that the motivations, pace and opportunities are different. Whilst this may be true, the sorts of changes to the brain that Carr suggest are not occurring.Carr's conception of mind is both out of date and misconstrued.What he suggests in relation to the mind is twaddle on so many levels it feels no more possible or desirable to refute than the enthusiastic chatter of a child. Carr doesn't strike me as someone who easily persuaded when he has something wrong.everything touches our mindseveryone is differentnot everyone has access to the Interneteven those who do use it for a myriad of different things in a multitude of ways.years of solitary confinement, or years in the trenches on the Western Front affect different people in different ways.'The Shallows' is an apt title as the thinking lacks depth.Look up a the authors Carr cites and you find they say as much to counter the arguments as support them, take the Nobel prize winning Eric Kandel for example who on the one hand identified the 'plasticity of the brain', but also showed that through habituation a sort of boredom sets in - it is hardly the case that Google is taking over our brains as Carr would have us believe.There is no research, rather an amble through the literature.As an mental indulgence I am reading the book and putting it through my mental shredder. In print form only makes checking references somewhat tedious. In eBook forms others would be questiong the text more often and with far great ease. What I dislike the most is how he misrepresents the work of others. The Nobel prize winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, for example, is quoted selectively to support Carr's view that our plastic brains are being permanently set out of kilter by Google and the Internet.

Shocking but very interesting study.

Highly recommend this (audio) book. The content is enlightening, well researched and well presented/delivered. The narrator also does a great job, doing justice to the book as if he authored it himself.

Given the title of this book, it would be a shame if it were a shallow read itself. Instead, it is challenging, perceptive and informative. I am enjoying it very much.

Excellent

Great read and insightful.

Perfect! Thank you!

There is no doubt that the Web is a great tool for information retrieval and storage, but at the same time, probably everyone knows the feeling that surfing the Web is also a sort of waste of time. The scariest part of the book in my opinion concerns the data mining that comes with surfing, emailing and all the social network activities. Not only are we giving up our brains but in a sense we are also opening our pockets, and for free.