The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Nicholas Carr is a well-known writer about information technology issues. When judging his latest book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, by the cover, one would presume the author will take a decidedly anti-Internet stance. One predicts the authors will tell how terrible the Internet is, how it is destroying our children, and ultimately our civilization. Instead, Carr gives a researched and reasoned account of what the Internet does appear to be doing to our brains, as well as an equally reasoned strategy for recognizing the effects and creating strategies to continue to be a productive member of society.

From Carr's account it is clear that our brains do work differently now... shallow thinking... click and change... new ideas each minute... scan the page... back to where you started... oh yeah.. hey, that's cool, I wonder if?

You have seen it in your students, you have seen it in yourself. The “mile-wide-and-inch-deep” approach to information is a permanent part of our society, and for educators, we need to do two things:

First, adapt. Just complaining that the Internet is ruining everything is a sure way to irrelevance. Changing your style (your instruction, your expectations, your willingness to deviate from the lesson plan) to help students make sense of what they learn and how they learn it is essential today.

Second, get deep. It is clear that today, more than ever, educators need to give students experience developing expertise through extended study and engagement. Students need support and encouragement to learn in the “pre-Internet” way. Reading books and long articles, writing essays and long papers.

Carr recounts the story of how he finished his book: He retreated to his second home in Colorado (it appears writing books about information technology is a more profitable avocation that teaching), turned off his cell phone, disconnected from the Internet; and then finished his thinking and writing. Maybe we can follow his lead: use the Internet to gather information, to live and interact; and then retreat into ourselves to make sense of it all.

We need to do both today.