Will I make it to the end of Nicholas Carr’s book the Shallows?

I have started reading Nicholas Carr’s book on whether the Internet is making us dumber. So far a very interesting read. Essentially the basic premise is that the Internet has reduced our ability to concentrate for long periods of time; instead we are choosing to digest as many small bits of information as possible, potentially harming our analytical and intelligence levels.

Rather than spend time reading a book from cover to cover, we have become a nation of greedy trivia guzzlers, choosing the likes of Wikipedia over the likes of Anna Karenina, looking for fast fixes of information and therein losing the ability to analyse and deduce. Certainly, Carr has been known to criticise Wikipedia in the past and indeed some might say we are far too reliant on something which can be edited by anyone; but does this mean we are entering a dark age of knowledge?

The Shallows rightly points out that Socrates himself questioned whether the arrival of the book and written word would make us dumber and now we are saying the same about the Internet. My surmise would be that the Internet forms part of natural progression and that the next big thing will garner just as much controversy. Coming back to the book itself, I look forward to finishing it – eventually :)