Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Nicholas Carr: A Book Narrative



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.

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