Do you ever lose concentration while reading? Do you find yourself constantly on your phone scrolling through emails, articles, and social feeds? The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains by Nicholas Carr takes an in-depth look at the impact humans lose when using the Internet. Today, many people are unlikely to engage in acts of contemplation, reflection, and deep reading due to highly distracting and addictive Internet technologies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The author establishes his argument using his personal life and how his brain has changed thanks to the Internet, then continues in the second half of the book to explain how heavy Internet use can have detrimental effects. Nicholas Carr effectively describes the effects of the Internet, which leads to the question: are costs beneficial? Nicholas Carr uses the Prologue: The Watchdog and The Thief to define a new medium and how it affects us. A 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, by Marshall McLuhan, predicted that “whenever a new medium appears, people naturally get caught up in the information” (Carr 2). He believed that society would suffer from its inability to participate in "linear thinking" because of electric media. McLuhan made this clear when he said: “Our focus on the content of a medium can blind us to these profound effects. » (Carr 3) and we end up thinking that "technology is just a tool, inert until we pick it up and inert again once we put it aside." "Carr uses this book as a framework to explain the trap that the new medium of the Internet has trapped us in. The first chapter details Carr's personal introduction to technology and how he noticed it changed his way of thinking. Carr first makes a connection with the film 2001: A Space Odyssey in which a supercomputer HAL attempts to kill human astronauts he works with. In response, the astronauts unplug HAL, causing the supercomputer to cry: "My. mind goes away, I can feel it' This can be a similar feeling to what we feel We feel reconnected to using the Internet as part of our mental abilities disappear and without the Internet we. we feel like HAL, unplugged A major debate has been brought to light about people's lack of concentration due to the way we use the Internet The way we quickly browse and collect information via the Internet has stopped people from being able to. read longer, more linear texts like books and articles. 6,000 children were studied and grew up thanks to the Internet. They found that they were ignoring traditional reading methodology and instead trying to scan the page for the most important information. When comparing a short text online or reading a large book, skimming can work for the Internet, but long, sustained linear thinking from left to right is necessary for larger text. The Vital Paths is an important chapter because it delves deeper into the discovery of neuroplasticity, which Carr begins by explaining a story about how minds can be shaped. A writer named Fredrick Nietzsche had health problems. These complications led to headaches and nausea when he wrote for long periods of time. To get by, he replaced the traditional pen and paper with onetypewriter. The typewriter removed the barriers when writing with pen and paper, but this change brought a change in his writing style. Carr states that Nietzsche's writing “became more precise, more telegraphic. “Michael Merzenich mapped brain functions by connecting electrodes with monkey brains and then noting which electrodes triggered when the monkey's different body nerves were stimulated. This then paved the way for evidence that the brain is malleable and can restructure itself for long-term cognitive changes. Neuroplasticity is a component of the body that allows it to heal but also leads to changing adaptation to an environment. The example of a monkey being given a simple pair of pliers or a rake shows that the monkey's brain shows cerebral expansion and defines circuits to use the tools. The monkey discovers how to use the tool as an extension of the hand, comparable to how we use the Internet and use it as a tool. The third chapter, Tools of the Mind, dives into an overview of the technologies that have reshaped the mind. All technologies fall into four categories: physical strength, sensory sensitivity, nature adaptation, and cognitive support. Everything has its pros and cons, just like when clocks appeared before, many people did not need a specific time of day to do their daily activities or when Socrates thought that when the new writing technology rise above oral tradition, it would ruin people's ability to memorize. believed that people would only be able to collect data rather than acquire knowledge. What writing has given us is surely valuable. But with new technology comes reckoning with what we have lost, and perhaps the newest technology, the Internet, deserves the same consideration. The Deeping Page discusses the developments throughout history in reading and writing that lead to a literate society and the inherent neurological changes that accompany these advances. Reading has improved our societal progress, but more importantly, it has reprogrammed our brains on a massive scale. From the beginning, learning to read requires our brains to first process visual shapes to translate them into letters, and then begin to read those letters with much less mental effort. Deep reading has led to three societal impacts: The first is deep thinking which is a type of systematic and linear thinking. Second, written clarity, ideas began to have increased clarity, elegance and originality. Finally, there is private learning where reading has become commonplace. Books allowed knowledge and learning to become silent and private. Additionally, learning is now based on people's interests. You might also be interested. Good Books to Read – Your Ultimate Summer Checklist Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get original essay books - books give you everything... In the next version of the book, Carr delves into the effects of rigorous Internet use. From chapter five: Medium of the most general nature, it shows that the evolution of computers and the Internet has resulted in the movement of new content through the medium. It begins with the intrusion of a man named Alan Turning, the man who broke up Nazi communications during World War II, who imagined a machine capable of performing certain functions. “Alan Turing is best remembered as thecreator of an imaginary computing device that anticipated and served as a model for the modern computer. “Over time and progress, the Internet has become this machine. With so many uses, people are forced to spend a huge amount of time working with it. Carr used strong evidence to support this claim, for example: "A 2008 international survey of 27,500 adults aged eighteen to fifty-five found that people spend thirty percent of their free time online ” (Carr 86) and in 2009, “the average teenager sent or received a staggering 2,272 text messages per month. (Carr 86)…Chapter six, The Very Image of a Book, explores the shift from physical books to e-books on the Internet. Plus, how this transition reshapes content and our minds. “As soon as you inject links into a book and connect it to the Web – as soon as you 'expand', 'enhance' and make it 'dynamic' – you change what it is and you change, as well as the experience of reading it. “The Internet has made its way into the book in the form of what is called an e-book. The fear has arisen because immersive and linear thinking disappears as the electronic version of a book gains popularity. “A printed matter is a finished object…The finality of the act of publishing has long instilled in the best and most conscientious writers and editors the desire, even the angst, to perfect the works they produce – d 'write with one eye and one ear turned towards eternity. Electronic text is ephemeral. » (Carr 107) In these e-books, there are distracting links and less incentive for quality. Due to this shift away from printed books, it has led to a loss of importance of linear thinking which follows the new methodology of rapid search for meaning. The Juggler's Brain delves into the details of the Internet's effects on users' minds and the studies that have proven these effects. The juggler's brain is the perfect way to describe how, when all of our attention is on the Internet, we simply jump from one distraction to the next. “When our brains are overworked, we find “distractions more distracting.” » (Carr 125) The Internet limits our working memory (the bridge between short and long term memory), making it difficult for us to retain content. Carr says: "Our use of the Internet involves many paradoxes, but this one promises that has the greatest long-term influence on our thinking is this: the Net captures our attention only to disperse it. (Carr 118) When reading a book, the brain allows it to flow like a river and the working memory is able to function. Thus, it improves and allows a lot of important information to accumulate in long-term memory. On the other hand, the Internet brings an avalanche of rapid multiples. With this rapid rush of information, we are so overwhelmed with information that almost everything passes through us. The Church of Google, a detailed chapter on the origin of Google and its evolution leading to the effects of the medium. Google is a company that needs to make money, and to meet the demand, advertisements are placed. The more someone clicks on a link, the more money Google makes, which gives us an incentive to keep clicking rather than staying on a single page. This blocks deep learning and this quote shows: “It is in Google's economic interest to ensure that we click as often as possible. The last thing the company wants is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, focused thinking. Google is literally in the business of distractions. » (Carr 157) The Internet has led to a domino effect of elements leading to 213)