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The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

The Shallows is a well-researched, in-depth exploration of the widespread human adoption of impactful technology like the Internet. Nicholas Carr examines how the adoption of previous world-altering technologies like books, maps, and the printing press have shaped the evolution of our minds and thought processes. The Internet is another one of these mind-altering technologies, but it may be changing our minds for the worse.

While the Internet provides access to enormous amounts of information, it has unfortunately been designed to distract us, and reap profits from those distractions. Our ability to focus deeply on complex problems and subject matter is declining. We are becoming a species of skimmers, of rocks skipping across ponds, traveling from link to link across the vast pond of the Internet, in search of shallow satiation and connection. We would do well to take pause, and ponder the implications of our hurried acceptance and reverence of the Internet.