Maybe you were suppose to do something important right now, but got distracted by a notification. Or you talked yourself into that it might be a good idea to check your social media. It has been 10 minutes, something might have happened? Nicholas Carr modern classic The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains will help you understand how internet media changes our behavior.
🗒️ The internet has turned into a network of interruption, with notifications, hyperlinks and multimedia.
🗒️ When reading we skim more and look for key words. Our ability to read long articles has decreased and our ability to concentrate has diminished.
🗒️ The media, rather than the content changes the way we think and act.
🗒️We change our brains through the tools we use and our tools numbs the parts they amplify. The GPS in our phones weakens our abilities to map out areas in our mind and I guess I’m not the only one that has notice a quality decrease in my handwriting skills as I write more on computers.
🗒️Deep reading demands deep concentration and has to be learned. Our intelligence hinges on our ability to transfer information from the short to long term memory and to weave it into conceptional schemas (complex concepts). Being able to focus on one thing for a length of time is important for creating that type of understanding and memory.
⚖️ Verdict: The book is incredibly interesting and explains a lot of behavioral change I’ve noticed in myself in recent years. It discusses science around how internet browsing changes the way we think and learn. We also get a very enjoyable history of how, throughout time, the introduction of different media have changed the human perspective.
5/5
“To be everywhere is to be nowhere” -Seneca
“It was ones understood that most effective filter of human thought was time” – Emerson
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Got this on audible because of your review. Loved it!
Niiice! Im glad to hear you liked it!