The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
Essentials
Carr,
Nicholas. (2011). What the internet is
doing to our brains: The shallows. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN: 0393339750
Theme
Nicholas
Carr, author of The Shallows, undertakes
a deepening view of internet as the foundational medium of technology that
righteously-so is numbing our brains. The
Shallows investigates the eras of human technological advancements and in
relationship to how the human brain, as a result, is becoming more shallow as a
powerful consequence.
Purpose
The
exploration of human advances from spoken word to written passages and online
views are examined in terms of creativity, learning, thinking, and capacity. Each
era has played a critical role in molding human development, and the human
brain has had the largest impact. Since the explosion of the World Wide Web,
Nicholas Carr explains how our neurological processes of thought, reasoning, learning
has been affected, and in return how human creativity and expression has
weakened. Attention focuses have lessened; humans are becoming “scattered
brained”. In his daring, scientific investigation of the internet, Nicholas
Carr exploits findings of The Shallows
in an engaging novel that users of all fields would find accustomed to everyday
life.
Supporting Evidence
In
compelling findings, Carr presents investigations in a two-fold method: eras
and effects. Each era of human technological advancement has contributed to the
effects of learning, thinking, and capacity for reasoning and understanding. My
agreement to each evidence presented by Carr to represent the thesis is
supported within the below. Every advancement is an expansion of human to
“expand our control, power over circumstances—over nature, time and distance,
and over one another” (Carr, 2011, p. 44). Earliest forms of writing date back
to 8000 BC, where humans used clay tokens for transcription of spoken to written
word, and during this time, the human brain shows positive results for critical
thinking and reasoning; neural pathways of the brain increased (Carr, 2011, p. 52).
Around 750 BC, the Greeks invented the first phonetic alphabet, which helped
many rising scholars and citizens alike engage in learning and conquest for
knowledge; this era saw a rise in the “economy of letters” (Carr, 2011, p. 53).
As spoken words were better easily transcribed into written word, oral words
helped to modify records such as scrolls, bibles, letters, and passages of books;
thus, this paved the way for books to become the source of navigation for
learning and growth (Carr, 2011, p. 60). The shift was a result of the need and
desire for human growth and development. The enjoyment of creativity and free
expression in writing appeared in the form of poems, plays, and songs written
and performed. However, during the Middle Ages, reading became more viewed as
less of performance and more of “personal instruction and improvement”; this
shift was one of the most critical since the development of the Greek alphabet
(Carr, 2011, p. 62). Alongside this introduction of human growth, the daring
Johannes Gutenberg around 1445 left his birthplace of Mainz along the Rhine
River to follow the pursuit of an idea that would transform human reasoning,
thinking, and creativity for generations to follow—the introduction of the
printing press (Carr, 2011, p. 68). The printing press established a new era
were previously mundane, long written words could easily be published into a
book, making reading more accessible, cheaper, and easier for humans. The invention
of the printing press appeared as a change of economy, publishing, and
technology. The era of the Enlightenment years gave rise to time where thinking
critically with sound reasoning became a primary focus for many citizens;
citizens were becoming “thinking machines” (Carr, 2011, p. 23). More recently,
in mid-20th century, the rise of an era of artificial intelligence (AI)
machines were being produced as innovators expanded their knowledge and
resources for society. In 1962, the first programming language was created that
transformed common words into usable syntax, and in 1977, the first Apple
Computer was born (Carr, 2011, p. 11). Both brought forth equal challenging advancements
for society, but it would not be until 1989 before either could fully be put to
good measure. In 1989, the World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee, and
since then, the widely used search engine, Google, alongside an explosion of
information overload appeared from books to everyday life (Carr, 2011, p. 9).
The results of such technological advancements have significantly impacted the
human brain
Furthermore,
the journey of learning transitions has required each era of humans to
re-program, re-think, and re-transition. As examined by Carr, these transitions
have shaped the human brain into one of “plasticity” (Carr, 2011, p. 21). The
human brain is malleable in the way cells have the ability to grow bigger with
use through learning, development, and creativity, and have the ability to
diffuse with wasteful engagements; therefore, every action has the potential to
leave some negative or positive print upon the human nervous tissue (Carr,
2011, p. 21). Whether it is seeing, thinking, hearing, or learning, all neural
circuits have the potential to be harmed, so important to the notion is to use
time of engagement wisely.
Implications
Revisiting
each era, clay tokens of spoken to written passages served for the openings of
new neural pathways in the brain, and the connection of visual and sense-making
areas of the brain were formed (Carr, 2011, p. 52). As eras progressed, the
ways in which human brains collected reasoning changed. Earliest form of
written words, such as passages, bibles, and plays helped to liberate the
writer as well as the reader; reading was viewed as a “filling, replenishment
of the mind” (Carr, 2011, p. 65). The connectivity between writer and reader
brings forth full submersion of demanding, undivided, sustained attention
within the passages of the text; thus, reading serves as a powerful
intellectual tool to expand and support mental capabilities, growth, and quest
for knowledge. Moving along the eras, the transition of technological
advancements switched human being thought processes substantially. With
introduction of the World Wide Web (for reference called the “net”), the human
brain began to decline. Our capacity for memory, expansion for growth,
creativity for learning, reasoning for progress, and processing of cues slowly
faded away, yet leaving a shallow brain. Thus, the net serves most functional
as a technological tool that has “fragmented content and [disrupted]
concentration” (Carr, 2011, p. 91). As information overload exists in the
online world, human beings are forced to rely on the scarification of critical
reasoning and learning at the dispense of cheap, copious, “easily searchable
artificial memory” even if the result makes humans shallower thinkers (Carr,
2011, p. 194). It is a long-standing battle between an era of technological
advancement that is further alienating humans and critical reasoning skills.
Related
to the notion of AI, the exploration of technological advancements and effects
on society are further explored in Surveillance,
Transparency and Democracy: Public Administration in the Information Age
written by Akhlaque Haque that carefully examines the relationship and would be
of a supplement to Nicholas Carr’s evidence on the rise of artificial intelligence.
One major implication is that to be effective leaders, we must appropriately
select, use, and distribute technology to citizens, bearing in mind the cost
and benefit analysis. If no or too little of reward is for citizens, then the
technological advancement has failed. If leaders are to promote technology then
according to Mary Parker Follet the “guidance by the law of the situation”
should be met; to be effective leaders, forth coming leaders should recognize
that the situation should guide the action thereafter, and action should not
guide the situation (Haque, 2011, p. 89). Meeting citizen needs is critical to
the survivor-ship of technological success and reducing information overload. Thus,
“technique” of carrying out everyday life is unique to each individual, and
technique is generated through the many facets that technology helps to implement
and shape into an individual’s life (Haque, 2015, p.35).
Interest
The Shallows explores the direct relationship
between each era of history and society effects; each one is propounding,
however, the last century is of most attention. Nicholas Car uses wise judgment
is stating that “we are trading away our old liner processes of thought for the
so-called riches of the technology” (Carr, 2011, p. 10). The Net has become a
source of medium for society, where information overload flows through the
eyes, ears, and brain. If society wishes to advance further in the
technological age, innovators, organizations, managers, and citizens alike must
recognize the direct and disturbing ramifications of such use. In an era where
the Net exists in every realm, from work to social and even religious (use of “live”
web based sermons for example), it is critical for all citizens to make the
necessary change. Change must start with the individual; every citizen has the
option of choosing information that flows in and out. As humans advance, brain
plasticity decreases, so it is of wise notion to be a mindful, attention
oriented person even in a world of distractions.
To be a
Public Administrator within the realm of the Net means engaging citizens in
useful ways such as limiting the volume of hyperlinks on pages, creating
thoughtful and not meaningless web sites, reverting to offline user activities,
and controlling the urge to put every information piece “virtually”, thereby
reducing information overload. In the Net era, it is critical to stay abreast
of changing trends, but an administrator should use discretion. Perhaps,
Twitter or Facebook may not be the best way to reach the targeted audience, and
a more direct way, may simply be “old-fashioned” mailings, letters, and even
phone calls that have more meaning, functionality, and positivity for human
brain plasticity. As Carr notes, “the price we pay to assume technology’s power
is alienation” (Carr, 2011, p. 211). To be an effective leader one must
carefully use technology an “enabler” for citizen thoughts, needs, and wants,
to leaders are ingrained as “human actors”, which play an essential role in
shaping the outcome of technology (Haque, 2015, p. xv Preface). The more
reliance on artificial intelligence, the shallower our brains are becoming, the
shallower our society is becoming, and ever more importantly, future
generations may cease to exist. The
Shallows encompasses that to “remain vital, culture must be renewed in the
minds of every generation…outsource memory, and culture withers” (Carr, 2011,
p. 197).
Resources
Carr, Nicholas. (2011). What the internet is doing to our brains:
The shallows. New York, NY: W. W.
Norton & Company
Haque, Akhlaque. (2015). Surveillance, Transparency and Democracy:
Public Administration in the
Information Age. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
