This is not just a book about Internet consumerism, but rather a study in neuropsychology which exposes the other dark reality of a tool apparently we can live without: the Internet. The initial question of the author was actually “Is Google making us stupid?” and the gradual loss of our ability to sit down still and browse the pages of a book or a magazine. Besides  the physiological and psychological effects of an addiction to information, how is technology messing up our brains? There are at least “7 ways technology is making you stupid:” First of all, it is screwing up your sleep and your internal clock. Two, it is making you more distracted and and even less efficient academically, if you are a student. Three, there isn’t much you can remember as your long-term memory is not appropriately fed by your transient working memory being continually interrupted. Four, you are more forgetful as multitasking technology keeps you unfocused. Five, you can’t concentrate on what you’re reading since it may get much harder to absorb information wrapped up in a multimedia format. Six, you can’t find your way around without the assistance of GPS as your hippocampus (that component of your brains involved in spatial navigation and the creation of “cognitive maps”) is not exercised. Seven, your brain isn’t unlike the brain of a drug addict or even an alcoholic person if you spend too much time on the Internet. Too much of a good thing can’t be good.

The shallows : what the Internet is doing to our brains. Nicholas Carr. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011.

Related Website: The Shallows.