- Perfect Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Atlantic Books (Jun 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1848872267
- ISBN-13: 978-1848872264
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.4 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 69,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way we Think, Read and Remember
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Is our constant exposure to electronic stimuli good for us? Can we transform the data we receive into the knowledge we need? Are we swapping deep understanding for shallow distractions?
In this book, Nicholas Carr argues that our constant exposure to multiple and faster data streams is changing the way our brains are wired. This change, which is due to the inherent plasticity of the brain, tends to reduce our capacity to absorb and retain what we read. Mr Carr cites a number of different studies to support his views, and the book makes for interesting reading.
Mr Carr acknowledges that the digital world brings both advantage and disadvantage: `Every tool imposes limitations even as it opens possibilities.' The Internet is a wonderful tool for finding information, but value usually requires some analysis, and often requires a context which is not always immediately obvious. How do we find a balance between those aspects of life that require self-awareness, time and careful consideration, and those aspects of life where an automatic (or semi automatic) response is more appropriate and perhaps even required? Do we understand what choices we have, or are we responding in line with the immediacy of the medium we are using? Are we consumers of data or evaluators of information? Does it matter? I think it does: `The more distracted we become, the less able we are to experience the subtlest, most distinctly human forms of empathy, compassion, and emotion.'
The most valuable aspect of this book, to me, was thinking about the short and long term consequences of the Internet. Those of us who grew to adulthood before the Internet shaped the way we work and communicate have (to varying degrees) embraced the benefits and new possibilities afforded.
A return to the past is neither possible nor desirable - but conscious choice is both.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In this book, Nicholas Carr argues that our constant exposure to multiple and faster data streams is changing the way our brains are wired. This change, which is due to the inherent plasticity of the brain, tends to reduce our capacity to absorb and retain what we read. Mr Carr cites a number of different studies to support his views, and the book makes for interesting reading.
Mr Carr acknowledges that the digital world brings both advantage and disadvantage: `Every tool imposes limitations even as it opens possibilities.' The Internet is a wonderful tool for finding information, but value usually requires some analysis, and often requires a context which is not always immediately obvious. How do we find a balance between those aspects of life that require self-awareness, time and careful consideration, and those aspects of life where an automatic (or semi automatic) response is more appropriate and perhaps even required? Do we understand what choices we have, or are we responding in line with the immediacy of the medium we are using? Are we consumers of data or evaluators of information? Does it matter? I think it does: `The more distracted we become, the less able we are to experience the subtlest, most distinctly human forms of empathy, compassion, and emotion.'
The most valuable aspect of this book, to me, was thinking about the short and long term consequences of the Internet. Those of us who grew to adulthood before the Internet shaped the way we work and communicate have (to varying degrees) embraced the benefits and new possibilities afforded.
A return to the past is neither possible nor desirable - but conscious choice is both.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr puts forward the argument that the internet is changing us in ways we may not have realised before. Nicholas Carr is convinced that despite the wide benefits the internet has brought, it is also having a fundamental impact on the physiology of our brains, altering not only the way we perceive reality but how we actually take in information and process it.
It is a quite shocking assessment, and one that he backs up with a range of evidence. As a non-expert in this area, I was left somewhat convinced by the cumulative force of the evidence presented, though I retained deep scepticism on the individual bits. The evidence also at times appeared "selective" - not enough studies cited that offer contrarian position. Mr Carr clearly has become convinced of the narrative and brings all the evidence to argue for it.
Presentationally, it does start off somewhat slow, but given the subject at hand, one is forced to concentrate if only to avoid falling in the company of shallows. My main quibble is that the book really offers no alternative and for some readers it may read that he has failed to address the deeper metaphysical questions. There are deep questions raised, but it ends up quite hopelessly - not clear just how we are to adapt to this inevitable new world of shallows. Nevertheless, I think he offers enough for others to explore in more depth this fascinating subject. The internet is clearly here to stay, if the dangers cited are real then this demands much more debate than we have had in general media.
It is a quite shocking assessment, and one that he backs up with a range of evidence. As a non-expert in this area, I was left somewhat convinced by the cumulative force of the evidence presented, though I retained deep scepticism on the individual bits. The evidence also at times appeared "selective" - not enough studies cited that offer contrarian position. Mr Carr clearly has become convinced of the narrative and brings all the evidence to argue for it.
Presentationally, it does start off somewhat slow, but given the subject at hand, one is forced to concentrate if only to avoid falling in the company of shallows. My main quibble is that the book really offers no alternative and for some readers it may read that he has failed to address the deeper metaphysical questions. There are deep questions raised, but it ends up quite hopelessly - not clear just how we are to adapt to this inevitable new world of shallows. Nevertheless, I think he offers enough for others to explore in more depth this fascinating subject. The internet is clearly here to stay, if the dangers cited are real then this demands much more debate than we have had in general media.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book starts with an absorbing history of how technological advances through the ages, such as the invention of writing and the Gutenberg press, have had a profound impact on the way in which humans think, and as a result on society as a whole. It then explores the science of how the way you use your mind actually changes the physical structure of your brain, which in turn reinforces certain thought processes in a kind of "vicious circle". The central theory of the book seems to be that the period of popular reading ushered in by the Gutenberg press was a kind of "golden era" of deep human thought, but that the internet with its endless distractions is causing us to revert to our earlier, shallower state of thinking. It presents both negative and positive sides of the net though. Generally a very accessible read but very thought-provoking.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Best in class. Scientific though moving, and not a cheap propaganda.
Carr quotes a number of researches from different fields including neuro-biology, psychology even philosophy and melts them together to prove his concept which is nicely worded in... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mikolaj Pietrzyk
The Shallows
This is really an impressing book but it started slow, when will he start explaining the subtitle about the way we think, read and remember? Well in the end it all fits together. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Bengt Carlsson
Well Argued Perspectives on a timely issue
I have just finished Nicholas Carr's The Shallows. I am usually not one to give in to technology scepticism, having built my life and career around the advent of Internet. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Supriyo Chaudhuri
Thoughtful essays on how the Internet drives brain changes and...
Business author Nicholas Carr enters Malcolm Gladwell territory with an insightful, far-reaching book of essays on how your brain works, how the Internet alters your perceptions... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Rolf Dobelli
Pensamiento crítico sobre impacto tecnologías sociales
Este libro aportará a los lectores una mirada crítica sobre el impacto que está teniendo Internet y las nuevas tecnologías sociales en la manera en que... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Dosdoce
Timely, important, extensively researched and deeply thoughtful. Read...
Every once in a while a book comes along that changes your life. You suspect it by the end of the first chapter, and by the time you close the book it's assured. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Miss E. Potten
Interesting but padded
This book has some interesting ideas, mainly the central idea of the book that we must reflect on the impact of technology in our minds. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Ike
Is the internet altering our brains?
Nicholas Carr's thought-provoking 250-page book marshals convincing evidence to show that heavy internet use not only changes our thinking processes but also the neural circuitry... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Jazzrook
A problematic argument that the Internet is rotting our brains
This book reflects the problem that Mr Carr has set out to describe. It reads like the product of hundreds of hours spent chasing hyperlinks, followed by cutting and pasting the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Jonathan Miller
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