Yesterday, I bought The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, in preparation for an upcoming project (TBA). It’s fascinating, and he’s saying things I’ve been thinking for some time, especially in regard to social media.
My initial review, after forty or so pages, is this: thoughtful, provoking, and well-written. I’m excited to keep going. I’ll be occasionally posting good quotes as I go, so enjoy this:
“We’re too busy being dazzled or disturbed by the programming to notice what’s going on inside our heads. In the end, we come to pretend that the technology itself doesn’t matter. It’s how we use it that matters, we tell ourselves. The implication, comforting in its hubris, is that we’re in control. The technology is just a tool, inert until we pick it up and inert again once we set it aside.”
–Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, 3
Caring for the Soul 