internet affecting the way people think, feel, even physical make-up of brains?

[Darren Dirt]

http://www.google.com/search?q=Writer+urges+Internet+junkies+to+'switch+off'+and+think

Like tens of millions of others, US technology writer Nicholas Carr found the lure of the worldwide web hard to resist -- until he noticed it was getting harder and harder to concentrate.

Every new technology in history -- like the map and the clock -- changed the way people think but Carr sees special dangers in the Internet.

He got his first PC back in the 1980s and was an avid net user until "a few years ago, I noticed some disturbing changes in the way my mind worked. I was losing the ability to concentrate."

While the Internet has enormous benefits in delivering incredible amounts of information at incredible speed, it's also a distracting and interruption-rich environment.

Carr said it encourages quick shifts in focus -- and discourages sustained attention and the ability to think deeply and creatively about one topic and to challenge conventional wisdom.

We take in so much information so quickly that we are in a constant state of cognitive overload," Carr argued.

"Multitasking erodes cognitive control. We lose our ability to say that this is important, this is unimportant. All we want is new information."

"There are signs, still sporadic and small, that people are beginning to question the effects of technology."

If friends, colleagues and employers were constantly on line, "then you feel in many ways compelled to do so even if you don't want to, because you don't want to damage your career or your social life".

"I think as a society we're choosing information overload: we're choosing to sacrifice the more meditative and contemplative aspects of our minds."

his new book has gotten a more "viral" response/netcoverage than his 2008 article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Google_Making_Us_Stupid%3F
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

[Mr. Analog]

I'm skeptical of this claim as it seems to be mostly anecdotal.

Heck, even building a test or scale that can accurately measure attentiveness would be a challenge, let alone finding a control group.

[Darren Dirt]

Yes, I think you are correct although you gotta admit that




...sorry, what? I was watching this depressing video clip demonstrating the impact of Lindsay Lohan on our youth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihLBCbNIDbI
"Money is Money. Who doesn't like money?" <-- new slogan of hopefully not many people.
( Redux: "Food is Food. Who doesn't like food?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Pdosx0iq0 )
( Justice Served! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddax7FwGI3E )

[Mr. Analog]

"Money is Money. Who doesn't like money?"

Whoa, very 80s...

Does this mean we have to live through grunge again?

[Thorin]

So is it that the Internet is changing our brain, or that we've always been wired to get distracted and there are simply more distractions now?

Really, the complaint here is that he's having trouble concentrating, and rather than accept responsibility for keeping his focus, he's blaming some external influence.

The rest of the article is then a long, blustery bit about how technology has changed the world and supposedly people's minds.  Or didn't you read the whole thing?

I will say, as anecdote, that I will still read a book and get lost in it if it's interesting, and that I'm making sure I continue to know how to read maps (another thing the author of the article claims to be losing).

[Darren Dirt]

I'm reading a 300-600 [science-]fiction novel about every 2 to 3 weeks, and not having a problem remembering the page I just read (most of the time) -- it helps to be reading Heinlein or Crichton mostly, as both are excellent at developing rich characters and vivid environments that draw in the reader -- and obviously Google Maps is uber-fun so doesn't hinder my map-reading ability... But this guy is a *Technology Writer* which is why I thought it interesting that his new book is getting mentioned in non-techie news sites etc.

Then I re-discovered his previous article about Google (not specifically, more like as an archetypal example) and how in his opinion we as a culture are being changed... possibly for the "worse".

I think his opinion is 80% anecdotal/personal and 20% probably-something-worrisome-actually-there -- reminds me of the Jerry Mander book "4 Arguments For The Elimination Of Television" that I have mentioned in the past.

[Thorin]

I think his opinion is 80% anecdotal/personal and 20% probably-something-worrisome-actually-there

If this sentence was on Wikipedia, it would get flagged "weasel words"   Your opinion is that his opinion is maybe one-fifth based on something that might be worrisome?

I stand by my original statement that he's blaming having trouble focusing on some external influence, rather than accept responsibility for simply having become lazy at reading.  It's no different than blaming video games for those murders that keep happening.  Rather than blaming the person for being too lazy to read properly or for killing someone, he/they blame the internet/video games for "changing" their reading habits/"causing" them to commit murder.

[Mr. Analog]

Everybody in the world does that whole thing where you read a bit and realize nothing sank in and then re-read it. It happens to everyone (well maybe not people with photographic memory but are they just remembering it or absorbing it??)

Personally speaking, I like being distracted because usually it means I'm also being observant and/or aware of what's going on around me. That said, I can consciously cut off other things to concentrate (like people having conversations around me). When I focus on my task I am in my own little bubble, this is the thing that goes against nature, this is the thing I had to learn through school and self discipline.

Interestingly enough, I find when I do artwork it's best if I listen to music because I take small mental breaks after moments of intense concentration (drawing cartoons lol), I can flip back and enjoy some Elvis for a bit or something and then get back to drawing something complex, personally I think this flip flop is built into our brains and is something that most of us probably should exercise more but we have trained ourselves to think that we must concentrate 100% at all times (some kind of puritanical/western work ethos or something, whereby things that are earned are only honest if done through "hard work".)