The Shallows by Nicholas Carr (Book)

The Shallows is a book about how the Internet is rewiring our brains, most likely for the worse, and it should be essential reading for anyone of this generation. Carr starts the book by reminding us of of the authority on technology and the consequences of its use, Marshall McLuhan, who in 1964 wrote ‘Understanding Media’. McLuhan warns us how the content of a medium is just “the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind”, that “the medium is the message.”  He also tells us that new technology is bringing about the dissolution of the linear mind, which raises THE question: is our internet-propagated rewiring necessarily bad? For we are simply measuring our new networked thinking process against the old linear standard.

To answer that, we need to know what is this new networked thinking process. But first, Carr explores how this transformation our brains have gone under, or are in the process of going under, was even possible. Delving deep into neuroscience, Carr does well in reducing what would have been inaccessible and obscure medical research to digestible and relevant morsels of information.

First, he tells us that the brain is plastic, and that even for adults, contrary to popular belief, “every action leaves some permanent print upon the nervous tissue” (J.Z. Young). Next, we learn that “cells that fire together wire together”, meaning that these permanent prints are actioned by tangible anatomical changes in our brain: synaptic links which grow stronger, and new neural terminals. Then, we are informed that when a blind person goes blind, his or her visual cortex doesn’t ‘go dark’, as previously thought; instead, it is taken over by circuits used for audio processing or touch (when they learn Braille). The conclusion: that “neurons want to receive input” (Nancy Kanwisher). Finally, fascinating research done by Pascual-Leone showed that test subjects who simply visualised playing a piano underwent the same neurological changes as subjects who had actually played the piano.

So from this wealth of information, we discover that the brain, regardless of age, isn’t as immune to change as we previously thought. In fact, it was also shown that London cab drivers underwent a serious redistribution of their hippocampuses (the area of the brain associated with storing spatial representations) as they learnt their way around the streets, and that these changes were reversed when they retired. The brain can therefore be seen as a use-it-or-lose-it system, one that craves input, and is susceptible not only to our actions, but even to our thoughts as well. With this in mind, it is understandable why the Internet is so addicting and eats up an ever-increasing portion of our daily lives: the engagement fulfils our input cravings.

While this neural plasticity may be celebrated by excited educators, it represents a double-edged sword for the possibility of intellectual decay is also implied. And though we may live in the Information Age, where an encyclopaedia can be consulted with a few clicks on a smart phone screen, we lack knowledge. Carr describes us as “lab rats”, “constantly pressing levers to get tiny pellets of social or intellectual nourishment”. This resonates with my experience of empty hours spent trawling through social media, searching for likes and comments, for little pieces of self-gratification, and of an equal number of hours surfing Wikipedia, jumping from hyperlink to hyperlink, reading, but never absorbing.

This new networked thinking sees us opening and maintaining multiple tabs whenever we’re on the internet, always multi-tasking, and therefore never fully concentrating on the task at hand. Small wonder we find tasks like reading and memorizing, the bread and butter of an education system only recently shelved, so difficult now. While it could be argued that books are a thing of the past (Americans between 25-34 read printed works for only 49 minutes/week in 2008),  the precipitous decline in reading does not cause unwarranted concern.

The Internet has reverted us to what Maryanne Wolf calls “mere decoders of information”, as our brains, overtaxed by the processing, co-ordination, and decision-making that the Internet demands of us, are hindered in their ability to comprehend and internalise – skills essential to reading, coincidence? Abilities that are most likely permanently hindered thanks to neural plasticity. Perhaps it is also not a coincidence that ADHD rates are at an all-time high.

To summarise my take on this well-researched and well-written caveat on the consequences of our Internet use, I’ll leave you with a salient allegory of Carr’s, in which he explains the distinction between working memory and long-term memory, respectively alluding the two to using a thimble (short and re-fillable) to fill a bath tub (huge, and requiring filling). He explains how in the same analogy, the Internet represents a multitude of fast-flowing taps, which even if you could decide which tap to use, flow too fast to fill your thimble. 


The Shallows - (Amazon link)