Evolution of Digital Culture

In Nicholas Carr's article, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, the claim is that the physiology of our brains is being changed by our online habits. One of the main effects that Carr discusses is the tendency to lose our ability to handle reading long chunks of text.

In fact, this phenomenon is getting more attention and confirmation in the years since that article was written. Carr's new book, The Shallows, goes even deeper into the history of neuroscience and the specific effects that have been observed in the internet-immersed brain.

This summer an article came out in Newsweek called "Is The Web Driving Us Mad?" by
Tony Dokoupil. That article went even further in pointing out the adverse emotional effects of habitual internet use. From the article:

Does the Internet make us crazy? Not the technology itself or the content, no. But a Newsweek review of findings from more than a dozen countries finds the answers pointing in a similar direction. Peter Whybrow, the director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, argues that “the computer is like electronic cocaine,” fueling cycles of mania followed by depressive stretches. The Internet “leads to behavior that people are conscious is not in their best interest and does leave them anxious and does make them act compulsively,” says Nicholas Carr, whose book The Shallows, about the Web’s effect on cognition, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It “fosters our obsessions, dependence, and stress reactions,” adds Larry Rosen, a California psychologist who has researched the Net’s effect for decades. It “encourages—and even promotes—insanity.”

 So, I think it is something we should be aware of as we become more and more dependent on our connection to the internet. I am hopeful that human beings can manage our new connected society in a way that enhances our experience of life, but this information about the effects of overuse are concerning.