What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr

"Between the intellectual guardrails set by our genetic code, the road is wide, and we hold the steering wheel. Through what we do and how we do it--moment by moment, day by day, consciously or unconsciously--we alter the chemical flows in our synapses and change our brains."~Nicholas Carr

"We must always be on the lookout for perverse dynamic processes which carry even good things to excess. It is precisely these excesses which become the most evil things...The devil, after all, is a fallen angel."~Kenneth E. Boulding

"We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter, our tools shape us."~Marshall McLuhan

"IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE!"~ Victor Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

Hello Book Mavens,

This month's selection has been a real eye-opener for this reader, and I suspect that it will have made quite an impression on most, if not all of you as well. Nothing could be of more import to those as deeply invested in the benefits and pleasures of reading as we are. So, when I chanced upon the original article in the Atlantic that gave rise to the expanded book that I chose for this month, I greedily devoured it. Carr's book, at least for me, has filled out a chilling picture that may bode ill for the future prospects of book culture.

As I read, fascinated with the cultural shifts described by the author, and the startling results of many scientific experiments backing up his claims, I felt the same concern that I experienced many years ago when the first e-readers were coming onto the scene. Now, having been given an e-reader as a gift a few years back (I doubt I would ever have bought one for myself), I sense the same foreboding described by Carr as sitting on the cusp of a tectonic paradigm shift in culture. As the author described it near the beginning of his book, "My life, like the lives of most Baby Boomers and Generation X'ers, has unfolded like a two-act play. It opened with Analogue Youth and then, after a quick but thorough shuffling of props, it entered Digital Adulthood."

I have a feeling that our discussion on Tuesday night August 26, at the home of Jay and Jessica Noble, will be as lively a conversation as we've had all year. In case you haven't gotten the e-mails about the meeting re-location, the Nobles live at 229 Bridgers Hill Rd, Longview. We look forward to seeing you all there.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

The author, Nicholas Carr, believes that his attention span has decreased, and he attributes this to Internet usage.  What do you think of his theory?  How does this compare to your own experience?  What and how do you read?

In chapter 1, Carr writes that “in the long run a medium’s content matters less than the medium itself in influencing how we think and act.” Why do you agree or disagree with this statement?

  “With the exception of alphabets and number systems, the Net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use,” Carr claims. “At the very least, it’s the most powerful that has come along since the book.” Do you agree with this statement? 

 One aspect frequently mentioned during discussions about the Internet is the death of newspapers and potentially print journalism. How do you think the Internet is changing the face of mass media, especially print journalism?

 Carr acknowledges that every technological revolution entails some gains and losses for societies.  Based up on this assumption, do you believe that today’s society is better off than prior decades as a result of the Internet?

 Carr indicates that not everyone (i.e. the poor, the illiterate, the isolated, the incurious) participated in Gutenberg’s revolution.  What group(s) do you think might be left out as books and other information move to a digital format?

Carr talks about hyperlinks in text.   When reading online, do you think hyperlinks in the text are more helpful or more of a distraction?   

 Carr contends that we have begun to use the Internet as a substitute for personal memory and thus “emptying our minds of their riches.”  Do you agree with this assumption?