-
The Shallows
- What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $20.97
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Irresistible
- The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
- By: Adam Alter
- Narrated by: Adam Alter
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the age of behavioral addiction - an age in which half of the American population is addicted to at least one behavior. We obsess over our emails, Instagram likes, and Facebook feeds; we binge on TV episodes and YouTube videos; we work longer hours each year; and we spend an average of three hours each day using our smartphones. Half of us would rather suffer a broken bone than a broken phone, and Millennial kids spend so much time in front of screens that they struggle to interact with real, live humans.
-
-
Not scientifically sound
- By Alex Gertner on 09-05-20
By: Adam Alter
-
The Glass Cage
- Automation and Us
- By: Nicholas Carr
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Glass Cage, bestselling author Nicholas Carr digs behind the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars, wearable computers and digitized medicine, as he explores the hidden costs of granting software dominion over our work and our leisure. Even as they bring ease to our lives, these programs are stealing something essential from us.
-
-
A MODERN LUDDITE
- By CHET YARBROUGH on 01-17-15
By: Nicholas Carr
-
Deep Work
- Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Master one of our economy’s most rare skills and achieve groundbreaking results with this “exciting” audiobook (Daniel H. Pink) from an “exceptional” author (New York Times Book Review). Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship.
-
-
Not too deep...
- By A curious visitor on 09-14-18
By: Cal Newport
-
Stolen Focus
- Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again
- By: Johann Hari
- Narrated by: Johann Hari
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only 65 seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions - even abandoning his phone for three months - but nothing seemed to work.
-
-
Needs a little sharpening
- By MP on 02-01-22
By: Johann Hari
-
Digital Minimalism
- Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Will Damron, Cal Newport
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In this timely and enlightening book, the best-selling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.
-
-
How To Live The Good Life
- By Loïs Talagrand on 02-12-19
By: Cal Newport
-
Essentialism
- The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
- By: Greg McKeown
- Narrated by: Greg McKeown
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy - instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us. Essentialism is not one more thing - it’s a whole new way of doing everything. It’s about doing less, but better, in every area of our lives. Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.
-
-
Maybe my expectations were too high
- By SJ on 11-11-18
By: Greg McKeown
-
Irresistible
- The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
- By: Adam Alter
- Narrated by: Adam Alter
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the age of behavioral addiction - an age in which half of the American population is addicted to at least one behavior. We obsess over our emails, Instagram likes, and Facebook feeds; we binge on TV episodes and YouTube videos; we work longer hours each year; and we spend an average of three hours each day using our smartphones. Half of us would rather suffer a broken bone than a broken phone, and Millennial kids spend so much time in front of screens that they struggle to interact with real, live humans.
-
-
Not scientifically sound
- By Alex Gertner on 09-05-20
By: Adam Alter
-
The Glass Cage
- Automation and Us
- By: Nicholas Carr
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Glass Cage, bestselling author Nicholas Carr digs behind the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars, wearable computers and digitized medicine, as he explores the hidden costs of granting software dominion over our work and our leisure. Even as they bring ease to our lives, these programs are stealing something essential from us.
-
-
A MODERN LUDDITE
- By CHET YARBROUGH on 01-17-15
By: Nicholas Carr
-
Deep Work
- Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Master one of our economy’s most rare skills and achieve groundbreaking results with this “exciting” audiobook (Daniel H. Pink) from an “exceptional” author (New York Times Book Review). Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship.
-
-
Not too deep...
- By A curious visitor on 09-14-18
By: Cal Newport
-
Stolen Focus
- Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again
- By: Johann Hari
- Narrated by: Johann Hari
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only 65 seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions - even abandoning his phone for three months - but nothing seemed to work.
-
-
Needs a little sharpening
- By MP on 02-01-22
By: Johann Hari
-
Digital Minimalism
- Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Will Damron, Cal Newport
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In this timely and enlightening book, the best-selling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.
-
-
How To Live The Good Life
- By Loïs Talagrand on 02-12-19
By: Cal Newport
-
Essentialism
- The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
- By: Greg McKeown
- Narrated by: Greg McKeown
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy - instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us. Essentialism is not one more thing - it’s a whole new way of doing everything. It’s about doing less, but better, in every area of our lives. Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.
-
-
Maybe my expectations were too high
- By SJ on 11-11-18
By: Greg McKeown
-
Reclaiming Conversation
- The Power of Talk in a Digital Age
- By: Sherry Turkle
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned media scholar Sherry Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity - and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground. We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over 30 years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence.
-
-
So good, I had to stop listening.
- By Turtle 1 on 12-30-15
By: Sherry Turkle
-
Smarter Than You Think
- How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better
- By: Clive Thompson
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Smarter Than You Think, Thompson documents how every technological innovation - from the printing press to the telegraph - has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But as in the past, we adapt, learning to use the new and retaining what’s good of the old.
-
-
We are all playing advance chess these days
- By Carolina on 03-17-14
By: Clive Thompson
-
A World Without Email
- Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern knowledge workers communicate constantly. Their days are defined by a relentless barrage of incoming messages and back-and-forth digital conversations - a state of constant, anxious chatter in which nobody can disconnect, and so nobody has the cognitive bandwidth to perform substantive work. There was a time when tools like email felt cutting edge, but a thorough review of current evidence reveals that the "hyperactive hive mind" workflow they helped create has become a productivity disaster, reducing profitability and perhaps even slowing overall economic growth.
-
-
Waste of time
- By Tarek Kamil on 04-20-21
By: Cal Newport
-
The Inevitable
- Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
- By: Kevin Kelly
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the 12 technological imperatives that will shape the next 30 years and transform our lives. Much of what will happen in the next 30 years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives - from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture.
-
-
Predicting is hard, especially about the future
- By Michael on 02-20-17
By: Kevin Kelly
-
Everybody Lies
- Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
- By: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Steven Pinker - foreword
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the end of on average day in the early 21st century, human beings searching the Internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. This staggering amount of information - unprecedented in history - can tell us a great deal about who we are - the fears, desires, and behaviors that drive us, and the conscious and unconscious decisions we make. From the profound to the mundane, we can gain astonishing knowledge about the human psyche that less than 20 years ago seemed unfathomable.
-
-
Leave out the politics please
- By Shane Hampson on 02-20-20
By: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, and others
-
How Emotions Are Made
- The Secret Life of the Brain
- By: Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose research overturns the long-standing belief that emotions are automatic, universal, and hardwired in different brain regions. Instead, Barrett shows, we construct each instance of emotion through a unique interplay of brain, body, and culture.
-
-
I cannot recommend this book
- By Amazon Customer on 02-25-18
-
Thinking, Fast and Slow
- By: Daniel Kahneman
- Narrated by: Patrick Egan
- Length: 20 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains....
-
-
Not on audio
- By Bay Area Girl on 09-25-17
By: Daniel Kahneman
-
The Tipping Point
- How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover Malcolm Gladwell's breakthrough debut and explore the science behind viral trends in business, marketing, and human behavior. The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate.
-
-
Exciting narrative with great vingettes
- By Gary on 06-16-12
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
Reader, Come Home
- The Reading Brain in a Digital World
- By: Maryanne Wolf
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Proust and the Squid, a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative epistolary book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependent on digital technologies.
-
-
Essential!
- By Millie on 09-13-18
By: Maryanne Wolf
-
Algorithms to Live By
- The Computer Science of Human Decisions
- By: Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to understanding the workings of human memory, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.
-
-
Loved this book!
- By Michael D. Busch on 10-03-16
By: Brian Christian, and others
-
Flow
- Living at the Peak of Your Abilities
- By: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Ph.D.
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In flow, everyday experience becomes a moment by moment opportunity for joy and self-fulfillment. Flow is the brain-child of a fascinating psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a renowned social scientist who has devoted his life's work to the study of what makes people truly happy, satisfied and fulfilled. While much of the study of psychology investigates disorders of the human mind, Dr. Csikszentmihalyi takes a different route.
-
-
The story of FLOW by the Master himself.
- By Jeffrey D. Proud on 06-19-15
-
Emotional Intelligence
- By: Daniel Goleman
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is IQ destiny? Not nearly as much as we think. This fascinating and persuasive program argues that our view of human intelligence is far too narrow, ignoring a crucial range of abilities - emotional intelligence - that matter immensely in terms of how we do in life.
-
-
Good material but bad presentation
- By Steve James on 06-04-06
By: Daniel Goleman
Publisher's Summary
The best-selling author of The Big Switch returns with an explosive look at technology’s effect on the mind.
“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question in an Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the internet’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?
Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration yet published of the internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences. Weaving insights from philosophy, neuroscience, and history into a rich narrative, The Shallows explains how the internet is rerouting our neural pathways, replacing the subtle mind of the book reader with the distracted mind of the screen watcher. A gripping story of human transformation played out against a backdrop of technological upheaval, The Shallows will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.
Critic Reviews
“Cogent, urgent, and well worth reading.” (Kirkus Reviews)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Shallows
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joseph
- 05-26-14
Its true.
I wanted to hate this book, and there is plenty of passionate negativity on the internet about it - mainly from those who haven't read it. The author brings an historical perspective to how technology has fundamentally changed how our minds operate. You wont like what he has to say, but you'll agree with his findings.
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Roy
- 08-11-10
Is the Internet Turning Our Brains to Mush?
I am currently listening to books that help me better understand the impact of the Internet on our lives. Though we will not understand the impact of the Internet for years to come, "The Shallows" aptly contributes to that understanding. I has pleased to see that this book was a thoughtful, patient, and informed presentation.
Essentially, Carr suggests that our ability to focus, concentrate and think is being altered in ways we are yet to understand. Hence, we are being pushed into the intellectual "shallows." Multitasking is not necessarily helpful to learning and understanding. Data does not necessarily equal wisdom. We are not as reflective as we need to be. I suppose that if you believe that tools determine behavior or if you believe behavior determines the use of tools will determine if you encounter the Internet with optimism or pessimism.
Thoughtfully written and Garcia’s reading is great.
24 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ex
- 05-30-17
fascinating.
this book does a great job of analyzing it's subject matter thoroughly and presenting a very broad argument dating back to before the printing press and it does so without coming across as anti technology or alarmist in any way.
it was also not repetitive, or overly explaining the science behind the argument. i wish more cognitive science books could approach their subject matter in a similar way.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam Shields
- 08-03-12
It is not consistant, so it is frustrating.
The Shallows is not a new book. It has been out for about two years and many people, much smarter than I have had their take at it. My short review, Carr has lots of good points, which tend to be lost amidst his hyperbole and cherry picked stats.
At the center of this argument is that people are reading books less. And he has some statistics from the Bureau of Labor to show this. But the National Endowment for the Arts study shows the largest increase in reading in decades (in all types of reading except poetry). Right off the bat, this severely undercuts his argument. The NEA study came out after the book, so I don’t blame him for not using it. But even if it had come out I think he would have disputed it. Because in that study a novel is counted as reading a novel no matter what format you read it in. But Carr does not believe that.
“An ebook is no more related to a book than an online newspaper is related to a print newspaper.” (By which, he means that they are not hardly related at all in the context of the quote.)
“Electronic text is impermanent…it seems likely that that removing the sense of closure from book writing will in time will alter writer’s attitudes toward their work. Their pressure to achieve perfection will diminish as well as the artistic rigor that it imposed… One only need to glance at the history of correspondence…the cost will be a further severing of the intellectual attachment between the lone reader and the lone writer…”
My biggest complaint is that Carr uses a very broad definition of the net and alternates between examples to fit his need. For instance he talks about the immediacy and interactivity of the net at one point and gives examples of a teen texting a friend. But that interaction is fundamentally different from reading a blog post or watching a YouTube video. Yes the common thread is that all use the means of the internet, but to pretend that they actually give us interaction in a similar way or that they are creating ‘neural pathways’ in a similar way as one another or reinforcing the same neural pathways seems to be stretching reality. In this same example he complains that ‘When we are online we are lost to the world around us.” Which is essentially the same thing that he says holds up as important about reading a book, what he said was lost about reading an ebook or reading online. So he wants us lost in a book, but not lost on a webpage?
There are a lot of good points here. One of them is that they type of work that we do lends itself to short term immediate thinking and crowds out some of the background processing that our brains use for creative thinking. I heard another author make a similar point this way in an interview. The author said, if you want to be a writer you need a job that is physically active and mentally easy. That is why so many authors are laborers or waiters. Office work requires active use of the brain throughout the day and does not allow for background thinking (not to mention doesn’t give us the physical exercise we need to stay healthy.
Another very good point is that reading texts that have hyperlinks and pulled out text and video and images requires our brains to constantly evaluate the importance of that particular item. Do you want to click on the link or not? Even though these thoughts are subconscious they still prevent us from obtaining full concentration on the meaning of the text. But this is more a formatting issues than ‘internet’ issue. Because he complains about this for ebooks, but does not bring it up on the formatting of paper books (no links, but end notes, footnotes and sidebar would have a similar effect.)
Continually, I think that my frustration with this book is that he is trying to make the case too strongly and too broadly. There are advantages of the internet (which he admits) that offset some of the negatives. But there are also ways to minimize the negatives through better design (which he seems to minimize the possibility). For instance in dedicated ebook readers present the text without distraction most of the time. I only use the dictionary when I don’t know what a word means, but otherwise, I never use wikipedia or websearch while reading my kindle. I leave sharing options and wifi off when I am reading, I don’t want to be bothered, I want to read the book. Encouraging single use devices instead of multi-use devices can aid in concentration. If you look at my review of reading on the ipad from 2 years ago, my main complaint was that it wasn’t single use.
Also I know many writers that have started using various distraction apps in their computer. These apps are full screen, no formatting and they disable all sound and sometimes even disable all other programs in the background. They even have options to gray out all of the text that you are not working on, so your immediate line or paragraph is black, but everything else is gray.
Carr makes the case well that we should not expect the internet or computers to make us smarter. I know that there are those that believe that and write about that. But Carr does not really look at the opposite. He shows that the internet is changing our brains (as does everything that we do), but is that really making us dumber? Is it helping us adapt to the world around us? Carr brings up many issues of concern. But on the whole I feel that his treatment of those issues once they are brought is lacking. Strawmen and Cherry-picked data abound. In those areas that I have done some independent research on outside of this book, I find his work very one sided. Which makes me doubt the veracity of the data that I do not have a prior background in.
On the whole I recommend the book if you have an interest about how the history of technology changes (that section was very good) or an intro to brain science (also good, but if anything he underplays this case). But in the end I felt like the book was lacking in balance and restraint. For a better treatment of the general problems with technology I would read John Dyer’s From the Garden. It includes an equally good understanding of the role of technology, but is much more balanced and useful.
45 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Scott L
- 08-04-10
Worth Reading
A very worth while listen, and deserving an actual read. There are many provocative yet trite "science for the masses" books. This is not one of them. Carr does a wonderful job of addressing a complicated and far reaching concern and educating the reader to many topics while surveying a great deal prior work.
Additionally, the narration is quite pleasant, though the irony of listening to this book is inescapable.
After listening I intend to buy a print copy for further review and to track down its sources.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Peppermint
- 05-22-11
Finally
Since a long while I had a feeling of being able to concentrate less and less on long texts. I would start to read a book but soon check something on the internet instead, switching between book and internet and finally sticking to the net in the end. Nicholas Carr explains not only why I had that strong urge to jump to the net, but also (among other things) why later on I would have to struggle to remember what I read in the book.
I highly recomend this book to everyone who wonders why its so difficult to part with the net for longer periods of time.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Douglas
- 11-11-13
Exceedingly Important Reading!...
There is a lot of back and forth in the press--and here in these reviews--about whether or not the 24/7 online status of today's American culture is eroding the mental capabilities of the current generation. As someone who has been teaching college English for 25 years and has seen both sides of the divide, I can clearly say: YES, IT IS. This book tells it like it is, and how it is--unfortunately--is that the average attention span is growing painfully shorter and shorter due to the constant distracting allure (?!) of cellphones, texting, and the ever-present availability of the Internet on cellphones, Ipads, tablets, etc. It only makes sense: the brain becomes rewired for short-term attention to fleeting images and interactions, and so more longer demands on focus begin to feel like running a marathon after having spent the last five years on the couch. And not only has it clearly eroded students' ability to pay attention and take part in class discussions--it has also seriously damaged relationships, trading FB BFF's for real-life friendships. If you doubt it, go to any college campus and watch for a while: how many people do you see talking with each other, and how many do you see with their heads in their 3'X3" electronic worlds, thumbs going like mad about the latest cat video--or whatever it is they are looking at. We are getting less attentive, more stupid, and less interactive, and this can not bode well for the future. Read this book; get the truth--and then rejoin the real world.
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- In the market for...
- 03-10-16
A Today's Man Essential Read
In the age of information we live today, this book will show you differences of man and machine. It will also show why we are incapable of multitasking effectively, and why we shouldn't multitask in the first place.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S. D. Schwaitzberg
- 05-04-17
A must read for educators and parents
there is no doubt the internet is amazing but the author tries to highlight with the prices may be for the joy ride as we ride the tops of the waves of information while we surf the web. There is no argument about how useful or fun the internet is, but it is a treatise begging us not to give up all of our old skills either.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Andy
- 08-14-11
fascinating commentary
I'm a big Carr fan and his latest soap box does not disappoint. Really fascinating to hear his take on what is happening to our brains as the result of our always-on lifestyle. Not only does Carr explain this through current science but also comparing it to another key development in how our brains have been shaped - the printing press.
4 people found this helpful