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Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
by
Nicholas Carr
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ISBN13:
9780393339758
ISBN10:
0393339750
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Awards
2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction Finalist
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Average customer rating 4.6 (9 comments)
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kfoley.bridger
, January 30, 2013
An accessible review of neuroscience and how and why external stimuli affect brain physiology and a history of technologies that changed human culture and evolution, this book provides a fascinating view into how what we do affects how we think.
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Mark Castner
, February 19, 2012
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If you're short on time for reading, jump right to chapter seven - The Juggler's Brain. This is the heart of Carr's argument. Don't be put off by the seemingly one-sided argument in the first two thirds of the chapter. Carr tries to balance the argument in the last one third, though rather weakly. His conclusion is clear. If you're hooked on web browsing and know you disagree with Carr, read the book anyway. He will make you think, something we don't do enough of these days. And before your read this book, try The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick. Carr's book will then hold more meaning and you will meet many of the same characters who have been important to the development of human thought.
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Kiersta
, January 01, 2012
This is an excellent book about the social history of reading and the effect the internet is having on our ability to read deeply. It is thoughtful, fascinating and disturbing, although Nicolas Carr is an educator, not an alarmist. The "Notes" and "Further Reading" pages are almost as interesting as the book itself.
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The Instant Librarian
, November 06, 2011
(view all comments by The Instant Librarian)
The way we read matters. Though the internet and the e-reader put the world's libraries at our fingertips, how we read on the screen is neurologically different than how we read on the page, and the difference has serious consequences. Carr's book is an informative portrait of our changing brain in its rapidly-evolving, media-saturated environment. Do you have trouble reading for sustained periods of time? Does your mind seem 'hungry' for distraction, given to multi-tasking even when there's no need to divide your attention? Do you get the sense that you're losing your capacity for deep reflection and thought? The Shallows provides a careful overview of the science behind the suspicion. In the tradition of Marshall McLuhan, Nicholas Carr offers an important (and surprisingly entertaining)warning for our times. Read it while you still can.
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writermala
, October 30, 2011
(view all comments by writermala)
What I'd expected from this book did not show up till chapter seven, "The Juggler's Brain." Till then the book set the reader up to understand the premise of the writer's thesis. It takes a lot of fortitude to read the book till then given that we are working with our internet adapted brains! The writer has rightly defined the current brain as being subjected to an "ecosystem of interruption technologies." It is rather ironical that I'm quoting a Rhodes scholar who said, "Why bother to read a book when you can Google the bits and pieces you need in a fraction of a second," in a site dedicated to books! The writer of our book alleges that Google is in the "business of distraction." There is no doubt that the internet has changed the way we behave, this book just prove that the behavioral change is caused by changes to our brains over the years of change in its usage. If you are looking for a "fast read" to tell you why you behave in a certain way now, this is not the book for you; but if you want a serious analysis of the evolution of the brain from pre-historic times to the current era, go for it.
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RussC
, September 18, 2011
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The Shallows should be required reading for anyone who cares about the future. Nicholas Carr began by posing a straight forward question: "Is Google making us stupid?" The Shallows explores what the internet is doing to our brains. The findings are beyond scary. Carr thoroughly researched his material and writes in a compelling style. The book should be read and discussed by parents, teachers, politicians and the public in general. Once read, a person will no longer be able to view the internet or other modern communication technology the same way. One of the most important books published in the past few years.
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bookdartsbob
, July 07, 2011
(view all comments by bookdartsbob)
The danger contained in this book's title is that we will be prone to substitute our own opinions and the swirl of comments we have heard on the topic for the well reasoned and thoroughly documented science which supports Carr's complex and well-thought out claims. We can easily nod our heads at his contention that "Deep reading makes deep thinking." But to appreciate all he holds that to mean requires reading the whole book as a whole and as a deep inference from a main premise, the thought of Marshall McLuhan that saying the value of a medium is related to its content is the conclusion of a "technological idiot." McLuhan says, to paraphrase, that the content is just the piece of meat thrown by the burglar to quiet the watchdog of our minds. Neither the reviewer for the Sunday NY Times Bk Rev. nor the fine Adam Gopnik writing in the New Yorker actually read the book, sadly; they presumed they could surmise where it was going and they did what Gary Shteyngart would call "super scanned" it. Some of the first evidence for his position and its detailed and rich support is the fact that most people you mention this book to already race ahead to conclude what kind of book they expect that it must be. The chapter on books is perhaps a good way to get into Carr's thinking and approach and to convince yourself that this is not a book that very many people could have written. It is immensely important and like The Shock Doctrine, one of the most important books ever written that almost no one will actually study.
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Nancy McClure
, July 04, 2011
(view all comments by Nancy McClure)
Have the people who praise this book been reading anything else about neuroscience in the last several years? The book is a complete rehash of material that has been described better in other non-academic work. I never need to read another chapter about the evolution of reading, Plato, Gutenberg, yada, yada... I've certainly read ones with livelier writing. When he finally gets to his thesis about half-way through the book, he talks as though everyone who spends time online has lost the ability for deep reading. I've been a web designer for 15 years, and I still read several books -- cover-to-cover -- every week. And let's hope that he's not right about common behaviors with his anecdotal evidence of scholars who cherry-pick search results and never read the context. On the other hand, all the kudos for this book are perhaps support for his notion of shallows!
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eray456
, June 14, 2011
"The Shallows" is a searching meditation on how technologies influence our lives and our minds. From maps and clocks, to the various tools used for reading and writing, and on to the Internet, Carr provides a thoughtful and engrossing tour of the "intellectual ethics" embedded in and spread by technologies. The evidence of how the Net, despite its many benefits, is short-circuiting some of our deeper thought processes will give you pause. A lovely and disturbing book.
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Product Details
ISBN:
9780393339758
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
06/06/2011
Publisher:
W W Norton & Company
Pages:
280
Height:
.80IN
Width:
5.40IN
Thickness:
.75
Copyright Year:
2011
Author:
Nicholas Carr
Author:
Nicholas Carr
$10.95
List Price:
$15.95
Used Trade Paperback
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