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The Increase Of Technology In The Shallows By Nicholas Carr

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Nicholas Carr argues that the exponential increase of technology has led to a more connected society but also more alienated and less able to engage with our natural capacities. Carr believes intelligent technologies like the internet amplify and numb our most intimate human capabilities, including reason, perception, memory, and emotion. In The Shallows, on page 211, Nicholas Carr states, "The price we pay to assume technology's power is alienation. The toll can be particularly high with intellectual technologies. The tools of the mind amplify and, in turn, numb the most intimate, the most human, of our natural capacities- those for a reason, perception, memory, emotion." The exponential increase of technology has led to a more connected society …show more content…

In The Shallows, it states, "I can't read War and Peace anymore," he admitted. "I've lost the ability to do that." (Carr, 7) Friedman says he can't no longer read how he usually would. Technology has changed the way people process and consume information. In "An Open Letter to High School Students about Reading," in paragraph 9, Patrick Sullivan states, "In one study, sociologists Judith C. Roberts and Keith A. Roberts found that many students see "reading" as simply forcing one's eyes to "touch" each word on the assigned pages, and many students candidly admit that they do not even read assigned materials at all. Many students read-only to finish rather than to understand what they have read." Many students have yet to be interested in reading lengthy …show more content…

In The Shallows, on page 199, it says, "Although even the initial users of the technology can often sense the changes in their patterns of attention, cognition, and memory as their brains adapt to the new medium, the most profound shifts play out more slowly, over several generations, as the technology becomes ever more embedded in work, leisure, and education- in all the norms and practices that define a society and its culture." The more technology is involved in their everyday lives, the more it will change how they think and do daily activities. These technologies have impacted their ability to think critically, remember information, and engage with others. According to Clifford Nass, "They're terrible at ignoring irrelevant information; they're terrible at keeping the information in their head nicely and neatly organized; and they're terrible at switching from one task to another." After experimenting, Nass discovered that they couldn't keep information organized nicely in their heads, and they couldn't ignore irrelevant details, which shows how the internet is impacting

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