I recently finished The Shallows – Nicholas Carr. It was a really interesting exploration about how the internet is changing how we think. It was also super interesting as it was written around 2009-2010, so everything Carr was saying was based on just working on laptops, browsing the net. As I was reading, I just thought about what happened over the next 15 years; what he was observing absolutely blew up in proportion.

He starts with McLuhan’s phrase, “the medium is the message”, and begins with a history about how “intellectual technologies” such as clocks, maps, documents and books, changed how we humans thought about things like time, geography and space, and knowledge. He then takes a surprising route through the discovery of neuroplasticity, and sort of points to this as how the media we consume shapes our thinking. From here, he dives into how internet media, which is fragmented, and filled with hyperlinks to encourage rabbitholing, has led to more distracted and fragmented thinking. He points to this as the reason why he and so many others have found it more difficult to finish books or even long articles. By using the media on the internet, he wasn’t exercising the abilities to sit with a long, cohesive text for a long time, developing sustained focus.

I loved the book, and found it both informative and reassuring. I’ve been interesting in the ideas about how technology shapes us (rather than the other way around), and this provided a nice historical overview of this concept. And, I simply liked the message that developing the skill of sitting with a text for a long time, focusing on its ideas, avoiding distractions and competing texts, was a very valuable and productive way to spend one’s time.

The book definitely made me feel like reading long texts is essential for deep thinking, and sadly is also a skill that is under attack through the flood of addictive short-form content. It makes me worry quite a lot for students and their abilities to learn, if they’re spending large amounts of time scrolling socials or skimming webpages. I don’t know if I’m catastrophising, but I genuinely feel that this is a very serious issue — where young people are being brought up using social media, which obliterates their abilities to sit with a text, have cohesive thoughts and learn/think deeply. I feel like this could lead to a feeling of disconnection with the world and the self. But, I’m also seeing quite a bit of backlash at the moment against short-form garbage – young people valuing critical thinking, rejecting algorithmic recommendations, and taking control of their attention. So there’s hope!!