"The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr - Review

The book "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr was among finalist for 2011 Pulitzer prize in general nonfiction category.   

Since my overall experience with non-fiction books so far is quite low, I thought that at least Pulitzer prize nominated book would have some solid story to tell.

As title suggests, this book is how Internet affects users' brain development and communication styles. Initially, I did like this book. First idea that I found interesting and relevant was the notion that recent advances in electronic communications made Internet users brain "impatient". People are having more difficulty concentrating on long reading and prefer short, headline type of information. 

However, later the author went on introducing several published social or psychological studies that proved or disproved certain his concepts. Basically, the book took very similar style that became popular with books by Malcolm Gladwell. Basically, it became cheap and non-serious.

Only other interesting idea which I derived from this book is the notion that Internet and other social communication tools available now are not necessarily being developed naturally or organically to fit the humans genetic or social tendencies. 

These social electronic tools are developed by few selected tech people who are not particularly known for their highly developed social skills. These tech geniuses are simply creating social communication standards in their own images, based on their limited preferences. However, such social tendencies might be totally alien for ordinary non-tech brains and could create potential dissonance between natural and artificially-imposed communication processes.

posted by David Usharauli      

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