The Shallows by Nicholas Carr - 1469 Words

In The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, he asserts that the evolution of information and communication technology (ICTs) is having a detrimental impact on our brains despite the many benefits and advances we have made with it. His main focus is on the internet which he commonly refers to as the â€Å"universal medium† (92). Carr presents a very detailed but biased argument in which he views the internet and other technologies as the adversary of critical thinking and progress. To Carr, we are sacrificing our ability to think logically because we are choosing a simpler way to gain knowledge. Carr mentions the effect that technology has on the neurological processes of the brain by explaining the concept of plasticity. Plasticity is described as the brain’s response through neurological pathways through experiences. The brain regions â€Å"change with experience, circumstance, and need† (29). Carr explains that brain plasticity also responds to experiences that cause damage to the nervous system. Carr describes the process in which injuries sustained in accidents â€Å"reveal how extensively the brain can reorganize itself† (29).I have heard stories in which amputees are said to have a reaction to their amputated limb; it is known as a phantom limb. These types of studies are helpful in supporting the claim that the brain can be restructured. Carr asserts that the internet is restructuring our brains while citing the brain plasticity experiments and studies done by other scientists. I haveShow MoreRelatedThe Shallows By Nicholas Carr1189 Words   |  5 PagesNicholas Carr covers an unprecedented amount of material in his novel, â€Å"The Shallows.† He delves into subjects ranging from the history of the book to the business of Google to the psychological concept of neuroplasticity. All of these topics support his main argument: the idea that the internet is destroying our brains. He takes the deterministic approach that we are the tools we use, meaning they shape our brains. According to Carr, the internet negates our memories, deems print books useless,Read More`` The Shallows `` By Nicholas Carr1880 Words   |  8 PagesIn his book The Shallows, Nicholas Carr claims, â€Å"With the exception of alphabets and number systems, the Net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use. At the very least, it’s the most powerful that has come along since the book† (Carr, 118). Carr supports this claim through examining other early inventions of man, such as the b ook, and using other s opinions and evidence to prove the Net can alter the mind. The author suggests that becauseRead MoreSummary Of The Shallows By Nicholas G. Carr981 Words   |  4 PagesIn his article â€Å"The Shallows†, Nicholas G. Carr explains to his readers how reading writing came to be, it s effects on the brain, and what both Plato and Socrates thought about the subjects. According to Carr, writing began in the year 8000 BC, when people would use small clay tokens that were engraved with symbols as a way to keep track of livestock and goods (Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains). Then during the end of the fourth century BC, the Sumerians and EgyptiansRead MoreThe Importance Of Technology In The Shallows By Nicholas Carr1949 Words   |  8 PagesThe Truth About Technology Reading linearly is the process of reading left to right from top to bottom. Nicholas Carr, the author of â€Å"The Shallows† writes about how technology is affecting our linear way of reading. Carr tells us how it used to be easy for him to immerse himself into a lengthy novel but now he finds his concentration starting to dwindle after only a short period of time. Carr also argues that we are losing our ability to think deeply because we are able to access such a plethoraRead More`` The Shallows, Joe O Shea, By Nicholas Carr Essay1307 Words   |  6 Pagesinformation. In Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows, Joe O’Shea, a Rhodes scholar, writes that reading books â€Å"is not a good use of my time, as I can get all the information I need faster through the web† (Carr, 9). O’Shea believes books are â€Å"superfluous† because of the efficiency of the internet (Carr, 9). They must be read carefully in order to find relevant information, but th e internet allows one to, â€Å"cherry-pick the pertinent passages using Google Book Search† (Carr, 8). Carr writes, â€Å"we’re noRead MoreNicholas Carr s The Shallows : What The Internet Is Doing990 Words   |  4 Pages Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, questions the impact the technology has upon our lives. He argues that the internet prevents our ability to engage in deep reading and thus restricts our ability to think critically. He says this is due to the idea of neuroplasticity, which is where our brains change in order to adapt to the different stimuli it encounters. When books were first introduced, our brain had to rewire itself in order to achieve the abilityRead MoreAn Analysis Of Nicholas Carr s The Shallows : What The Internet Is Doing877 Words   |  4 Pages Nicholas Carr published The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains in 2011 as a result of his own personal experiences and observations of his own behavior. The book was published by W.W. Norton Company with ISBN 978-0-393-33975-8. Carr began working on the book after he noticed that since the birth of the internet, he did not think in the same ways that he used to think; he was easily distracted and had trouble concentrating on tasks requiring a lot of thought (2011). This effectRead MoreThe Effects of Technological Advancements on the Brain Analyzed in The Shallows by Nicholas Carr 1341 Words   |  5 PagesBook Review #1: The Shallows The advancement of technology has constantly shaped the way society operates as a whole, but not too often do people take a further look in to realize if technology is affecting our individual brains. Those points of analysis get addressed in the book The Shallows (2010) as the author Nicholas Carr scientifically examines how technology may or may not be subconsciously altering our brains. Technology is constantly evolving, such the same as humans, but does the advancementRead MoreEssay about The Shallows851 Words   |  4 Pages210 27 October 2011 The Shallows; Real or Make Believe The Internet is something that some consider their lifesavers, while others believe that it takes their life away. The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr is a novel that explores the different areas of how new technologies affect humans in different ways, regarding multi-tasking and distractions, to how new technologies make us lose a little part of ourselves. Throughout the book Carr puts forward very strongRead MoreEssay on the Internet1407 Words   |  6 Pagesmake you dumber†, by Nicholas Carr unsupporter of literacy by internet, portrays that each article have different points of views regarding the internet making us smarter or dumber. Clay Shirky uses more historical examples of texts that were written in the form of books way before there was Internet. Nicholas Carr uses more proven statistics and psychological information in his article, to persuade his audience. In the next paragraphs I will compare and contrast both Nicholas Carr a nd Clay Shirky’s