Has the Internet made us shallow?
I spend a huge part of my day – and night as well, actually – online. So, it was of great interest to hear that my favourite tech writer, Nicholas Carr, has written a new book about the impact of the Internet on how our mind works.
Carr, who wrote the controversial book 'Does IT Matter' a few years ago, has just come out with 'The Shallows – What the Internet is doing to our brains'.
In a nutshell, his argument is that the Internet, while immensely beneficial, has caused us to have short attention spans and has made us less capable of deep, focused, contemplative reading.
"When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning," Carr says, equating consuming content online to "reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle".
Note that he is not saying the content on the Internet is inferior to what you can find in books. What he's saying is that when we go online, we are in a constant state of distraction because it's so tempting to open multiple tabs on our browser.
"When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning," Carr says, equating consuming content online to "reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle". Note that he is not saying the content on the Internet is inferior to what you can find in books. What he's saying is that when we go online, we are in a constant state of distraction because it's so tempting to open multiple tabs on our browser.
Too much exposure to this constant state of distraction, Carr says, has caused our brains to actually change and become inclined towards constantly multitasking. Before you dismiss this as a kooky theory, you should know that this view is actually shared by a number of neurologists.
You are what you consume
However, famed Harvard psychology professor and author of 'The Stuff of Thought', Steven Pinker, is not one of them.
In an opinion piece published in the New York Times, Pinker denounces media critics who argue that the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes.
"As with primitive peoples who believe that eating fierce animals will make them fierce, they assume that watching quick cuts in rock videos turns your mental life into quick cuts or that reading bullet points and Twitter postings turns your thoughts into bullet points and Twitter postings," Pinker says.
However, famed Harvard psychology professor and author of 'The Stuff of Thought', Steven Pinker, is not one of them.
In an opinion piece published in the New York Times, Pinker denounces media critics who argue that the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes.
"As with primitive peoples who believe that eating fierce animals will make them fierce, they assume that watching quick cuts in rock videos turns your mental life into quick cuts or that reading bullet points and Twitter postings turns your thoughts into bullet points and Twitter postings," Pinker says.
He adds: "Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopaedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart."
Carr fired back through a long posting on his blog, where he maintains that "changes in our habits of thought echo through our neural pathways, for better and for worse".
He quotes a multitude of credible people who support his point of view. For example, Carr cites neurobiology professor Russell A. Poldrock who says, "Our research has shown that multitasking can have an insidious effect on learning, changing the brain systems that are involved so that even if one can learn while multitasking, the nature of that learning is altered to be less flexible. This effect is of particular concern given the increasing use of devices by children during studying."
Carr acknowledges that electronic media may enhance some aspects of our intelligence, like the ability to spot patterns in arrays of visual data, or to discover pertinent facts, or to collaborate at a distance. However, the price we pay for that is the negative impact on our ability to reflect on our experiences, or to express ourselves in subtle language, or to read complex narratives critically.
Carr acknowledges that electronic media may enhance some aspects of our intelligence, like the ability to spot patterns in arrays of visual data, or to discover pertinent facts, or to collaborate at a distance. However, the price we pay for that is the negative impact on our ability to reflect on our experiences, or to express ourselves in subtle language, or to read complex narratives critically.
"Our most valuable mental habits – the habits of deep and focused thought – must be learned, and the way we learn them is by practising them, regularly and attentively," Carr says.
"And that's what our continuously connected, constantly distracted lives are stealing from us: the encouragement and the opportunity to practice reflection, introspection, and other contemplative modes of thought."
Use technology responsibly
For his part, Pinker acknowledges that the Internet can indeed be distracting and addictive but argues that distraction is not a new phenomenon and that the solution is not to bemoan technology but to develop strategies of self-control.
"Turn off e-mail or Twitter when you work, put away your Blackberry at dinner time, ask your spouse to call you to bed at a designated hour," he says.
"Turn off e-mail or Twitter when you work, put away your Blackberry at dinner time, ask your spouse to call you to bed at a designated hour," he says.
It's worth pointing out that Carr is hardly a Luddite and he neither thinks it's possible nor preferable to roll back time.
"We should all celebrate, along with Pinker, the many benefits that the Net and related media have brought us," he says. "But we should not share Pinker's complacency when it comes to the Net's ill effects, and we should certainly not ignore the mounting evidence of those effects."
Reading the cogent arguments and counter-arguments of these two thought leaders is fascinating. On the one hand, I do see Pinker's point. The Internet has certainly allowed me to acquire knowledge, gain experiences and achieve things that would not have been possible otherwise.
Yet, I can't disagree with Carr's central point that my constant exposure to the Internet has fundamentally changed the way I consume content. I don't really have the patience to read books for long periods of time anymore.
After a while, I feel fidgety and want to grab a magazine or a newspaper or another book, check for e-mails on my phone, and ultimately, get back to my laptop so I can launch my browser.
What about you? As you read this article, are you also chatting with someone? How many tabs are opened on your browser? Are you tweeting your thoughts while doing all this?
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