Synopsis
At the start of the essay, Carr says that his recent difficulties with concentrating while reading books and long articles may be due to spending a lot of time on the Internet. He posits that regular Internet usage may have the effect of diminishing the capacity for concentration and contemplation. He prefaces his argument with a couple of anecdotes from bloggers on their changing reading habits, as well as the findings of a 2008 University College London study titled "Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future" which suggests the emergence of new types of reading. He cites Maryanne Wolf, an expert on reading, for her expertise on the role of media and technology in learning written languages. Carr raises the point that unlike speech, which is an innate ability hardwired into the human brain, the ability to read has to be taught in order for the brain to rearrange its original parts for the task of interpreting symbols into words. He acknowledges that his argument does not yet have the backing of long-term neurological and psychological studies. Carr further draws on Wolf's work, particularly her 2007 book Proust and the Squid, to relate his argument to the way in which neural circuits in the reading brain are specifically shaped by the demands particular to each written language, such as Chinese, Japanese, and alphabet-based scripts. Therefore, Carr purports that the neural circuitry shaped by regular Internet usage can also be expected to be different from that shaped by the reading of books and other page-based written material.
Carr begins his argument by reasoning how the capacity to concentrate may be weakened by regular Internet usage. He mentions an historical example involving Friedrich Nietzsche's usage of a typewriter, a fairly new technology in the 1880s. According to German scholar Friedrich A. Kittler, Nietzsche's prose style changed when he started using a typewriter, which he had adopted because of his developing difficulty with writing by hand due to failing eyesight. Carr proceeds to explain that scientific research in the field of neuroplasticity as of 2008 has demonstrated that the brain's neural circuitry can in fact be rewired. In the humanities, sociologist Daniel Bell coined the term "intellectual technologies" to describe those technologies that extend the brain's cognitive faculties, and Carr states that he believes that the human brain adopts the qualities of these intellectual technologies. In discussing the mechanical clock, Carr deliberates upon the benefits and losses that are characteristic of new technologies. Then, Carr ventures that the cognitive impact of the Internet may be far more encompassing than any other previous intellectual technology because the Internet is gradually performing the services of most intellectual technologies, thus replacing them. Carr finally contends that the prevalent style of presentation for much of the Internet's content may significantly hinder the capacity to concentrate due to the many distractions that often surround the Internet's content, in the form of ads and obtrusive notifications. Additionally, he claims that these detrimental effects on concentration are compounded by traditional media because they are gradually adopting a style of presentation for their content that mimics the Internet, in order to remain competitive as consumer expectations change.
Carr also theorizes that the capacity to contemplate may diminish as computer algorithms unburden an Internet user's brain of much of the painstaking knowledge work — the manipulation of abstract information and knowledge — that was previously done manually. In comparing the Internet with Frederick Winslow Taylor's management system for industrial efficiency, Carr makes the point that back then some workers complained that they felt they were becoming mere automatons due to the systemic application of Taylorism — a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflow processes, improving labor productivity. Carr selects Google as a prime example of a company in which computer engineers and software designers have applied Taylorism to the knowledge industry, delivering increasingly robust information that may have the effect of minimizing opportunities to ponder ambiguities. Additionally, he argues that the Internet's dominant business model is one that thrives as companies either collect information on users or deliver them advertisements, therefore companies capitalize on users who move from link to link rather than those who engage in sustained thought.
Finally, Carr places his skepticism in a historical context, reflecting upon how previous detractors of technological advances have fared. While often correct, Carr points out that skepticisms such as Socrates' concerns about written language and the 15th-century Venetian editor Hieronimo Squarciafico's concerns about printed works failed to anticipate the benefits that these technologies might hold for human knowledge. As an afterthought, a 2005 essay by playwright Richard Foreman is excerpted for its lament of the waning of the "highly educated and articulate personality".
Read more about this topic: Is Google Making Us Stupid?/GA1