Too much, too fast, too fragmented. Is there more to it?
Ever since the internet began to deluge our brains with an unceasing flow of information—meaning both raw data, and raw data given structure in the act of “informing”—intellectuals have been sounding alarms over the impacts on our thinking processes. There is a consensus, even among boosters of new data-heavy technology, that we need to take a hard look at those impacts and what they portend for the future of our society.
Nicholas Carr devoted a book to the subject in 2010, entitled The Shallows. His book begins with Carr’s self-observations on how his internet information-gathering practices have infused his thinking with a shorter attention span, lack of follow-through on reading material, and a propensity to jump to shaky inferences based on short, superficial snippets of information. He makes the case that these phenomena have spread throughout internet userdom (now, most of our society), to the detriment of deep comprehension and wisdom. (I’m not sure Carr used the word “wisdom”—it might sound a little sententious, and I read the book years ago—but if he didn’t use it I doubt he’d object to my imputing the idea to him.)
Carr—and many others preaching similar messages —puts an emphasis on distraction as the main threat to deeper thinking. How can you concentrate on any one train of thought when there are so many intercommunicating trains crowding the station, tempting you to hop on board via hyperlink? And take you to yet another crowded station with yet more bright and shiny hyperlinks?
How right is he? Is Carr’s examination of The Shallows too shallow?
Continue reading “Hijacking the Reading Circuit: Are Screens Robbing Children of Comprehension?”