My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I've read various articles over the past year discussing the idea that our use of technology is impacting our humanity. Then, somewhat randomly, I came across this book, published in 2010 (which seems eons ago with how fast technology moves) seemingly discussing the same thing. Perhaps because of my already budding interest, perhaps because of how well the thesis of the book connected with my own experience, I found this book to be fascinating and personally profound.
In this book, Carr examines the latest (at the time, again, 2010) research into our brains. He demonstrates how we are discovering that the brain has more ongoing and lasting plasticity than we originally thought. In other words, our brains are not static; they are dynamic, they change based on our environment and our experiences. What we do (and as Aristotle would say, what we repeatedly do) has the potential to cause our brains to neurologically adapt.
In this light, Carr urges us to think about what our use of Net will do to our brains. Through examination of pertinent research and studies, he informs his readers of various things of concern. The use impacts our ability to have deeper understanding (one study talks about how the more hyperlinks in an article decreases our reading comprehension). The use impacts our memory (we retain less and less). The use impacts our social empathy (not in the good way).
Carr is quick to note that not all the effects are negative - he points out that it is likely that our IQ scores keep increasing due to technology (though this is tempered with understanding how IQ is measured). In any event, I believe the most significant idea conveyed (at least to me) in this book is the idea that the (over?)use of the Net - how we read on it, work on it, play on it - gives us more information but less capacity to understand that information. In other words, we know more but understand less. This is a significant loss in my opinion.
It occurred to me after reading the book that part of the difficulty some may have in accepting Carr's thesis and the research he shares stems with how we so often view our "mind" as different from our "body," at least in the West. Whether it be because of Christianity's conception of the soul, or the remnants of Descartes's mind-body dualism, we have this sense that our mind is separate from our body. Thus, we feel that our mind is more the product of our own will, as opposed to being a material thing subject to experience and environment. We feel that technology, by increasing efficiency, can "free up our mind" for other pursuits; not understanding that the brain/mind functions in similar ways to muscles in our body - how you use that muscle impacts its strength, its endurance, its recovery, and so on. Thus, what we read and how we read impacts how our brain processes information and keeps it (or doesn't). Therefore, engaging in the activities in the Internet - a medium built on distraction - impacts our abilility for deeper work; deeper work necessary for that deeper understanding. We gain more information at the cost of understanding.
I mentioned at the beginning that this book corresponded greatly with my personal experience. Over the past couple years, I have found it harder and harder to read longer, more difficult books; books I have routinely read in years past. I find a constant tug towards my phone, towards the Internet, towards one more click, towards another email, and so it goes. Net reading is easily based on skimming and scrolling; when I read that way, I know I am not understanding as much. I can sense that difference in my reading of certain of the magazine subscriptions I have - if I have read an article online before my print version comes, I don't remember it as well and understand it in the same way I do when I read articles in print. Scrolling Twitter is a constant load on cognitive function, but presents little depth.
I know more, but I understand less. Reading this book has made me want to change this dynamic, at least as it applies to my life. But it also makes me wonder. I sense this because I read a lot, and I've read a lot of things in print and on the Net, so eventually I was able to notice a difference. Yet, what about those that won't know any different? What about the multitude of kids growing up, given iPads and Chromebooks by their schools, always reading on a Net based device, how will they be able to tell the difference? Will the brain's plasticity adapt, despite out evidence to contrary thus far?
Or we will become a society that knows more but understands less.
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