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I’ve yet to read Nick Carr’s latest, The Shallows, which takes a pessimistic view of the effects of writing and scanning tweets, SMSs, IMs, etc. on our neural wiring.
It’s on my reading list. Certainly his claim that our attention spans are being stunted, which may ultimately degrade our overall ability to follow more complex, non-shallow arguments when needed, has made its way into our public arguments on the Internet and always-on digital technology
In his Rough Type blog, Carr recently responded to an essay by Justin Smith that takes an opposite view. Smith, writing for Berfrois, points out that transient, non-deep relationships have been with us since the first “have a good day!” was uttered.
The Internet just turns what were trivial, meaningless interactions within our own small social groups into trivial virtual interactions with our friends, along with a much larger network of “friends”.
Carr said he would mull over Smith’s arguments. I probably lean more with Carr on this point—that there are unforeseen consequences of communicating in three-letter acronyms and smiley faces.
Just because society has allowed for shallowness doesn’t necessarily mean we should encourage it.
Related articles
- The Internet changes everything/nothing (roughtype.com)
- Diverging Content Preferences: Is Baby Bear’s Disappearance Cause for Worry? (scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org)
- On the Internet (berfrois.com)
