Class of 2016 Common Reading
The SHallows
“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that
question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a
well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized
one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s
bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?
Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the
Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he
describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools
of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock,
and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent
discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric
Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change
in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and
share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.
Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a
convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual
ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence.
He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting
deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the
rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources.
Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of
optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its
own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but
what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and
reflection.
Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural
criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich
Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains
of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach
of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state
of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we
think about media and our minds.