“‘Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?’ So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene toward the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey,” Nicholas Carr writes for The Atlantic. “Bowman, having nearly been sent to a deep-space death by the malfunctioning machine, is calmly, coldly disconnecting the memory circuits that control its artificial brain. ‘Dave, my mind is going,’ HAL says, forlornly. ‘I can feel it. I can feel it.'”
“I can feel it, too,” Carr writes. “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.”
“I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets—reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link,” Carr writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Samuel K.” for the heads up.]
Not Apple-related per se, however, we do post items from time to time that we feel might be of interest to a majority of our readers.
It is reflective of most teenagers today…ADD for everyone.
I would have written more in my FIRST post but I got distracted
Gosh, and I thought my problems were because of cataracts in my eyes making it difficult to read. Not to mention having two children going through adolescence 8 years apart, making it difficult to have any personal time to read, anyhow.
I haven’t read the full article, but I’d agree with the opinion that computer/internet use, like most forms of digital entertainment, tends to make the human mind spoiled/lazy. Or to put it another way, as humans we tend to be spoiled and lazy any time life is easy and we are catered to, and the digital age just adds to the effect.
I’d say he’s onto something…
The Internet and other technologies could be causing/contributing to ADD. We’re becoming conditioned to almost-instantaneous information and are brains want to jump onto the next thing rather than focus on the current item.
He might just need to have his vision checked.
I had the same problem and the same theory. While I was being treated for an eye inflammation, the ophthalmologist discovered that my eyeglass prescription was wrong. The optometrist hadn’t made the proper correction for the astigmatism in my left eye. My glasses had been wrong for two years! The ophthalmologist re-examined my vision and gave me a better eyeglass prescription.
Now things are settling back to normal—I can read! I can read!—and it is no more optometrists for me!
It’ll give you the Steve Ballmer egghead!!!
I look forward to the day when our children complain no one takes time to slow down and READ the internet anymore.
We dooed it to ourselves again!
I thought it was just me being lazy. Glad to know it’s not my fault!
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I was going to say something derogatory about Apple, but now I forgot what it was I was going to say.
I can’t be bothered to read the article, but I say to this guy as Arnold would say, “You lack discipline!”
“Daisy, Daisy how does your garden grow?”
A decade ago there were complaints that television was causing us to “Amuse Ourselves to Death” and now the trend had continued online. All media is guilty of shortening the attention span. Try sitting through a classic 3+ hour movie. It takes a lot of effort. Same with a novel.
It’s funny he should bring up 2001 because I just watched that movie recently for the first time (hey, I’m 25), and thought it was one of the most boring and excruciatingly slow-paced movies I’ve ever seen. Compared to the pace of modern movies, it’s somnambulistic.
Be that as it may, this guy’s right. I can sometimes feel my brain getting sucked into the “Web” zone where I’m just skimming through everything at 90 MPH and not really benefiting my soul in any way. That’s why I try to take time to pray and meditate regularly throughout the week free of distractions — it can make my life better in a way three hours of blasting away bad guys on the PS3 never will.
But blasting guys is so much more fun.
BTW, I’m 50 and 2001 is a pretentious, boring movie.
@ Arnold – Qoute: I can’t be bothered to read the article…
@ Military Police – Qoute: I haven’t read the full article, but I’d agree…
Well! You guys just proved the authors point! If you can´t read through the entire article you are brain damaged all ready…
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Jump! Jump! Seek new and fast info… Jump! Jump! Seek new and fast info… Jump! Jump! Seek…..
I didn’t read the whole article, was it interesting?
Okay, I’m losing interest…
Getting old sucks. But the alternative is even worse.
This is a serious issue, and one I find affecting my own reading habits (another Lit major who has to force himself to slow down and read an entire article). The New Yorker had a great article on the subject recently that suggests there are political implications to the trend (it’s online here). I wonder what the “instant gratification” view of information is doing to our educational system, and our view of the value of an in-depth education and critical thinking skills. It seems like a massive extension of the (dumb) argument that no one needs math anymore because nearly everyone has access to a calculator.
The (mw) moral of the story is, “slow down and read, and think.”
Plain ol’ BS. After reading GOBS of fiction, or detailed technical articles everything from filesystems to the cisc-risc debate, or tactical warfare, or (blah blah blah), you skim because you’ve heard it already.
So, Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for all the ADD in high school. Class-action lawsuit!
‘While I was being treated for an eye inflammation, the ophthalmologist discovered that my eyeglass prescription was wrong. The optometrist hadn’t made the proper correction for the astigmatism in my left eye.’
LOL
I had the opposite problem. The ophthalmologist, a cranky old SOB, even older than I am, missed the astigmatism in my right eye 3 times over 6 years. His analog equipment came over on the Mayflower.
I went to a hot, twenty something optometrist and she found it first try using todays virtually foolproof digital technology.
Did I mention she was hot as well?
LOL MW is position
I do think the internet has had an impact on our behaviorial processes, but more as part of the current society than a single influence. We are much more of a demanding, instant gratification culture now. I noticed this in myself when I realized I was always impatient with the microwave oven, lol. But seriously, every new means of information delivery changes our perspective, and nearly all have been hailed as potential ruinators of our minds and future. The printing press, televison, and now the internet, all have their good and bad attributes.
My Cures for the Internet-Addled Brain, (which I’ve used on myself)
1. Listen to the Esbjorn Svensson Trio or any type of music where it challenges you to follow the development of the motif (RIP Esbjorn)
2. Go attend live theatre, or spoken word performances.
3. Go for a run for a least half an hour.
4. Keep reading a multipage article from one of your favourite literary or political periodical 3 times a week.(ie. Utne, Geez, The Atlantic, The Walrus, National Review, etc.) For some of us, we may have to force ourselves to do this for six weeks. They say it takes six weeks to form a new habit.
5. Try to memorize a piece of literature or text that’s longer than say, 5 sentences.
I don’t look at reading and internet browsing as opposing forces. Just internet surfing is candy. I’m just developing different skills for different needs without losing the two.
MW: forms – as in, the choices you make to take in media, forms the way your brain operates.
@Wil
6. Drink a fifth of scotch
7. Chase women
8. Drink another fifth of scotch
9. Chase more women
10. Pass out
This will prevent the internet from addling your brain
The answer’s simple. He has Alzheimer’s.
I
@ Wil
I also suggest you check out music by Godspeed! You Black Emperor. Their shortest songs are 12 minutes long.
I tried to read this article but my mind wandered…
I have noticed the exact same thing as Mr. Carr. NIce tips, Wil.
Geez it seems like the internet has the same effect as smoking pot…it makes you…ummm…makes you….ummm….
I’m hungry…..
@ Wil, CrissyOne, et al,
Listen to Brian Eno’s “Thursday Afternoon”. One track, one hour.
Then, listen to John Cage’s immortal “4:33”. 4 minutes 33 seconds of silence performed at a grand piano.
Now, that should sooth any one’s internet addled brain. . .
I like the humor of some posts above but it’s pretty easy to be funny about such a subject. It’s a serious issue, good to see it raised and MDN follow it. The article though offers but a door which you must open and walk through to experience what is the other side.
What you get on the net, and to a great extent from other media, is information. Information is the seed. Nurture information, feed it with other things, information and those to follow here, and a tree grows. We can call the tree knowledge and many people think that knowledge is all, indeed knowledge is thinking.
But above knowledge there is understanding, which for many is a concept that is difficult to understand for lesser things attract the moniker, such is the world. The tree, when all things are right and in season, fruits. These fruits we can call understanding. It is a tiny proportion of the whole, dwarfed by the mass of the tree and the earth beneath, but the fruit is all powerful for it is the essence, food to the body and soul, beauty to the senses, and within it is the seed, of life, the future. This is not the same seed as that from which the tree started, it is a better seed enhanced by the experience of the life of the tree.
For information above you could insert education, for education is not what it seems. Education is deliberately limited, structured, it is not aimed at empowering the individual rather its purpose is to make good workers for the factories and offices of the corporations.
And for the music fans, maybe listen to:
Echoes, Pink Floyd
Terrapin Station, Grateful Dead.
The Seduction Of Claude Debussy, The Art of Noise
For brief interludes I like Calexico and James Morrison from last years KFOG. And some old stuff like Toots and the Maytals.
No time to read this garbage.
The Cure – Carnage Visors = 27 minute instrumental. It will make you want to die at least 6 times.
Synthmeister says: “BTW, I’m 50 and 2001 is a pretentious, boring movie.”
I remember walking out after seeing 2001: A Space Idiocy. I was pissed. It was a watershed moment for science fiction. A major studio had a major director making a large budget SciFi film. But they chose a crap story that was a bad example of the best SciFi fiction and the director botched even that. What a shame and what a waste!!!!
I read more books than ever, but then I commute two hours on a train everyday. I would say that for me, the internet is the primary tool thorough which I handle my finances, buy music (to the extent I can’t rip it for free), and it also serves as a temporary break from work (like right now).
That Carr believes the internet is remapping his brain probably has more to do with the pea-size of it, more than any real effect caused by the ‘net itself.
But I think many of you on this board should revere the internet as your savior, as many of you would have no human interaction without it, you sweaty-palmed geeks, you.
Woah, go Gandalf. Great words.
This is a good thread, and relevant; thanks MDN. You should be able to both scan headline texts and large volumes.
I read a review about the Sonic Youth album Washing Machine. It said it felt like it was feeding and increasing your brain power, rather than turning it to jelly like some mindless music out there.
“I read a review about the Sonic Youth album Washing Machine. It said it felt like it was feeding and increasing your brain power, rather than turning it to jelly like some mindless music out there.”
Ah, I see you’re a fan of The Cramps then.
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@ R5D4 “That Carr believes the internet is remapping his brain probably has more to do with the pea-size of it, more than any real effect caused by the ‘net itself.”
I think that the questions raised by the article are much bigger than this. Carr (‘Pea-brained’ or not) is helping us to see that thinking is not self-evident. We tend to view thought as a constant, it happens automatically, and only one way. What he is helping us to see is that what we take to be monolithic is actually varied. I can ‘read deeply’ or skim the surface. What is in danger is that we will only skim and never dive. Skimming is fun, but we are at risk of losing other things that are important…like wisdom.
@ mac@cam
I’m sorry, but all I take from the article is that the guy finds it harder to read books and articles in depth because of his internet reading habits, whether it be IM, e-mail or what have you.
This is not something I’ve experienced, so I am critical of his observations. These same arguments were no doubt posited at the beginning of the TV age. They hold no more weight now than they did then. But hey, if enough people agree with him, maybe he scores an appearance on the Today show.
I have to read in detail for a living. It is part of my job to read and make sense out of long pieces of even boring writing, so maybe for this reason I am immune to this supposed phenomenon. But more likely, this is mild (and possibly manufactured) histrionics on Carr’s part disguised as a new, real and interesting problem we should all be concerned about. You choose to buy in, I don’t.
I’m now a homo.
While I generally agree with this article, I do have to also make a counterpoint. With the immediate access to nearly unlimited information close at hand via the Internet I am often more likely to dig into a subject that I may otherwise dismiss. Watching a movie and wonder where else you have seen an actor ? Jump on the’net and research it. A word comes up in a conversation and while you know how to use it and its meaning, you can’t explain its origins. Jump on the ‘net and research it. BI (before Internet) one would have to go find the encyclopedia, call your family brainiac or consult the oracles to find an answer. And we all know how all 3 of those ‘sources’ are all too often out-of-date and out-of-touch !
Whoa…excellent post Gandalf though I lost interest halfway through.
Just kidding….I liked it!
This article is as boring as Les Miserables and almost as long. Just because one doesn’t have to rummage to shelves of dusty old books to find some obscure quote anymore doesn’t make the internet a bad for you. I have found that the internet hasn’t added to my knowledge, it’s multiplied it.
The Luddites were wrong–wait let me check Google to see when the Luddites were around–in 1811 and they are wrong now.
Technology is not making us think less or less deeply; it is only making us Think Different.
I was very fortunate to have – read – 2001 A Space Odyssey before the movie was made. My only disappointment with the movie was that is couldn’t contain all the details given in the book. Is there a lesson there?
@ R5D4
I completely agree that the hysteria is out of place. There is nothing apocolyptic about Google.
The point that I find interesting is that a lot of the people who have put effort into thinking about thinking seem to conclude that things that we take for granted about how thought proceedes can change and eventually get burried in the flux of history. One example of this is how since the advent of computers we tend to think of things as systems (immune system, social system, cognitive system). This has not always been so. Before systems, the primary metaphors were hydrolics (Descartes), and before this tools, and much before this the rays of the sun (Euclid). We tend to see the world through the lens of our latest technology. What does the world as Google and iMac look like ?
Yes, 2001 is a slow-paced movie, but I think that’s what makes it great, totally unlike any other. No wham-bam fast action in space, with photon-torpedo-laden warships turning on a dime. As I recall, Kubrick had it vetted by some of the astronauts, and they only inauthentic detail they could find was liquid dropping back down the straw when Heywood Floyd stopped drinking.
I am 41 and I also thought 2001 sucked when I watched it (in my 20s).
Anyway, the thing you got to know is, it pioneered a lot of stuff for its time.
Like the space ship coming down (and space ships in fact) into its “hangar” – that whole landing base thing is now standard in Japanese anime, American Sci Fi, etc. but they did it first there. All the stuff, video conferencing, etc. etc. etc.
So that is why people 30 years older than me were so Wow Wow over that boring movie.
It’s like trying to play Galaxian today.
(I prefer Galaga
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I actually noticed a phenomenon way before the net was popular that I think contributes to this situation, and that is MTV. When MTV first made it’s appearance, I notice right away that the images given only lasted 1-4 seconds before a new image was given. That is common still for a lot of music videos.
The conventional wisdom says that using your brain helps keep it healthy. The internet certainly invites people to use their brains, which is more than one can say for tv. The thing is, a computer monitor is not the most user-friendly medium for extended reading. And we can blame tv news for the sound-bite school of journalism. We have all been trained by tv, not the internet, to get our information in concentrated doses. The internet is a suitable medium for the continuation of that trend. Personally, I still love to read… books, that is. I hate reading long articles on the computer screen. Use it or lose it, that’s what I say. And pick your poison.
@Road Warrier (NLI):
Good point. The quick cutting of visual images popularized by MTV has also made its way into tv and movies. But the thing is, the human brain is an amazing, severely under-utilized organ. It may be that the brain itself work at much higher speed than we are accustomed to. For example, some people can read an entire book in just a few minutes and retain just as much information as most people would get from reading the book at normal speed.
Then there’s the argument that a great deal of useless filler goes into alot of media. Personally, I have read many 200-page books (especially non-fiction) that could easily be condensed into a few pages of useful information. So this is a complex issue, and the times they are a-changin’.