The Shallows

What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

By: Nicholas Carr

Narrated by: Richard Powers

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

The best-selling author of The Big Switch returns with an explosive look at technology’s effect on the mind.

“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question in an Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the internet’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?

Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration yet published of the internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences. Weaving insights from philosophy, neuroscience, and history into a rich narrative, The Shallows explains how the internet is rerouting our neural pathways, replacing the subtle mind of the book reader with the distracted mind of the screen watcher. A gripping story of human transformation played out against a backdrop of technological upheaval, The Shallows will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.

©2010 Nicholas Carr (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Neuroscience and technology buffs, librarians, and Internet users will find this truly compelling.” ( Library Journal)

“Cogent, urgent, and well worth reading.” (Kirkus Reviews)

could works better as a sharpen ted talk

three different ideas in this Book but Maybe is taking too long to explaining this findings. but deserves be re readed definitely

Finally

Since a long while I had a feeling of being able to concentrate less and less on long texts. I would start to read a book but soon check something on the internet instead, switching between book and internet and finally sticking to the net in the end. Nicholas Carr explains not only why I had that strong urge to jump to the net, but also (among other things) why later on I would have to struggle to remember what I read in the book.
I highly recomend this book to everyone who wonders why its so difficult to part with the net for longer periods of time.

fascinating.

this book does a great job of analyzing it's subject matter thoroughly and presenting a very broad argument dating back to before the printing press and it does so without coming across as anti technology or alarmist in any way.

it was also not repetitive, or overly explaining the science behind the argument. i wish more cognitive science books could approach their subject matter in a similar way.

Confirming what many of us have feared

An exhaustive study...with plenty of backup and research. I'll admit that I'd already felt the way we live today - essentially in sound bites and rapid fire "subject heading" attention spans,was changing the say we think. I'm a 52 year old male who has been a multi-tasker most of my life, and the internet has aided in that - to no end. While I feel much more efficient and productive (and knowledgeable) , I now realize most of it is pretty superficial and the list of 'mostly or half finished' projects grows daily... It's time to get a grip. There is a lot to keep the listener engaged but it's a long book...and at times found myself drifting - perhaps another victim of that brain modification! (Joke, sorta)

Think about it

I found this to be very enlightening. I have changed my online habits to get the most out of what my brain can hold. Important points: Humans are NOT multitasking, Overloading our short term memory doesn't make us smarter. Well worth a listen.

a true insight to the effects of the internet.

this book elaborates thoroughly on the impact of social media and the web on the human mind and memory.

Important book for thinking about tech in our lives

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a critical view of how technologies influence us. It's very listenable and engaging.

slow start but great finish

I choose the read after a recommendation from a YouTube video regarding long term memory and it's conception from short term. That being said I wasn't entirely interested in the subject matter as a whole. However once delving in to the contents and the external stimulations effects on bio-chemical & neuro-psychological configuration I was captivated. I began to lose attention in the detailed account of typewriters and so forth but found value in the over all piece.

Fantastic

This book was fantastic and terrifying. It is a chilling glimpse of things to come.

Powerful and Frightening

Not what I expected when I started this book, it’s a impressive history of the technologies of knowledge and a detailed yet approachable explanation of just what those technologies have done and are doing to our minds. Fascinating and frightening at the same time, this book demands a response in the form of a careful and deep examination of the way we consume media. This book has introduced to many ideas I’ve never thought before and provides reasons for behaviors and changes I’ve observed in the world around me.

The Shallows is important. I would put it on my short list of books literally every person should read.