It means our thinking is likely to be broad and shallow. The process of publishing a book demands a kind of perfectionism and finality, whereas the internet is easily revised, always in draft. What does that mean? It means it will be faster, and more fluid. Our thinking, our public debate, our culture, is and will increasingly be online. The book is not going to be the dominant form of idea transmission any more. “To read a book was to practice and unnatural process of thought, one that demanded sustained, unbroken attention to a static, single object.” But reading is something we have to train our brains to do, and it naturally encourages a certain type of thinking that is quiet, linear, and personal. The invention of books, and then the printing press, made reading into our primary medium for communicating and sharing ideas. “A long sequence of printed pages assembled between a pair of stiff covers has proven to be a remarkably robust technology, remaining useful and popular for half a millennium” says Carr, to the satisfaction of bibliophile readers. We get a history of the book, how it evolved from tablets and scrolls, and how written language evolved into its modern readable forms. The book then settles on what Carr sees as the dominant thinking technology of the last few hundred years – the book itself. It had always been “a continuous, cyclical flow”, until the clock gave us the idea that time could be divided into chunks which could be measured, spent, saved or wasted. Carr traces the history of written language, looks at how the map enabled new forms of thinking about space, and how the clock changed the way people thought about time. “The brain” says Carr, “and the mind to which it gives rise – is forever a work in progress.” As the brain adapts and creates new pathways, those new connections become the preferred ones and other modes of thinking get harder.Īny new technology will thus influence not just what we think, but how we think. That’s why practice makes perfect and habits form.

They constantly make new connections that reinforce and ease certain patterns of thought.

That’s Nicholas Carr’s central premise, and he begins his wise and engaging book by explaining why technology changes the way we think – neuroplasticity.

A technology as pervasive as the internet is going to have profound implications for how and what we think, how we understand ourselves and the world around us. It has brought unimaginable benefits, but no technology is neutral. It has revolutionised communication, business, entertainment, education, and much else besides. It is now ubiquitous, deeply embedded in the way that we work, rest and play. We grew up without it, but were the last generation to do so. The internet has been the defining technology of my generation.

The book the shallows