An illustration and extension of Nicholas Carr's book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. Intended for an educational audience, with embedded videos.
15. Norman Doidge, M.D.: The Brain That Changes Itself
“PLASTIC DOES NOT MEAN ELASTIC.”
16. Norman Doidge, M.D.: The Brain That Changes Itself
“ONCE WE HAVE WIRED NEW CIRCUITRY IN
OUR BRAIN, ‘WE LONG TO KEEP IT ACTIVATED....
THE BRAIN MAP SPACE FOR THOSE SKILLS
IS TURNED OVER TO THE [NEW] SKILLS
WE PRACTICE INSTEAD’.”
29. “THE MAP ‘ADVANCED THE EVOLUTION OF
ABSTRACT THINKING’ THROUGHOUT SOCIETY.’”
Arthur Robinson, cartographic historian
Arthur Robinson, cartographic historian
30. David S. Landes, Revolution in Time
“THE PERSONALIZATION OF PRECISELY
MEASURED TIME ‘WAS A MAJOR STIMULUS TO
THE INDIVIDUALISM THAT WAS AN EVER MORE
SALIENT ASPECT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION.’”
34. Langdon Winner, political scientist
“TECHNOLOGIES ARE NOT MERELY AIDS TO
HUMAN ACTIVITY, BUT [ARE] ALSO
POWERFUL FORCES ACTING TO RESHAPE
THAT ACTIVITY AND ITS MEANING.”
38. “AND WHEN WE HAND DOWN OUR HABITS OF
THOUGHT TO OUR CHILDREN, THROUGH THE
EXAMPLES WE SET, THE SCHOOLING WE
PROVIDE, AND THE MEDIA WE USE, WE HAND
DOWN AS WELL THE MODIFICATIONS IN THE
STRUCTURE OF OUR BRAINS.”
39. “AND WHEN WE HAND DOWN OUR HABITS OF
THOUGHT TO OUR CHILDREN, THROUGH THE
EXAMPLES WE SET, THE SCHOOLING WE
PROVIDE, AND THE MEDIA WE USE, WE HAND
DOWN AS WELL THE MODIFICATIONS IN THE
STRUCTURE OF OUR BRAINS.”
41. Socrates, as quoted in Plato’s Phaedrus
“FAR BETTER THAN THE WORD WRITTEN IN THE
‘WATER’ OF INK IS ‘AN INTELLIGENT WORD
GRAVEN IN THE SOUL OF THE LEARNER.’”
42. Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid
“MODERN STUDIES SHOW THAT
NEURAL ACTIVITY...DOUBLES OR TRIPLES
WHEN WE LOOK AT MEANINGFUL SYMBOLS
AS OPPOSED TO MEANINGLESS DOODLES.”
49. “IT’S HARD FOR US TO IMAGINE TODAY, BUT NO
SPACES SEPARATED THE WORDS IN EARLY
WRITING. IN THE BOOKS INKED BY SCRIBES,
WORDS RAN TOGETHER WITHOUT ANY BREAK
ACROSS EVERY LINE ON EVERY PAGE, IN WHAT’S
NOW REFERRED TO AS SCRIPTURA CONTINUA.”
50. “WHEN HE READ, HIS EYES SCANNED THE PAGE
& HIS HEART EXPLORED THE MEANING, BUT HIS
VOICE WAS SILENT & HIS TONGUE WAS STILL.”
St. Augustine, Confessions
56. “THE ABILITY TO FOCUS ON A SINGLE TASK,
RELATIVELY UNINTERRUPTED, [WAS A]
STRANGE ANOMALY IN THE HISTORY OF OUR
PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT.”
Vaughan Bell, Research Psychologist
60. “IN THE DIGITAL MARKETPLACE,
PUBLICATION BECOMES AN ONGOING PROCESS
RATHER THAN A DISCRETE EVENT,
AND REVISION CAN GO ON INDEFINITELY.”
61. “We believe a tool that can open up the millions
of pages in the world’s books can help remove
the barriers between people and information.”
62. “A SEARCH ENGINE OFTEN DRAWS OUR
ATTENTION TO...A FEW WORDS OR SENTENCES
THAT HAVE STRONG RELEVANCE TO WHATEVER
WE’RE SEARCHING FOR AT THE MOMENT,
WHILE PROVIDING LITTLE INCENTIVE FOR
TAKING IN THE WORK AS A WHOLE.”
63. Steven Johnson, Wall Street Journal
“WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS WILL BEGIN...
CRAFTING SECTIONS EXPLICITLY IN THE
HOPES THAT THEY WILL DRAW IN [A] STEADY
STREAM OF SEARCH VISITORS.”
73. Socrates, as quoted in Plato’s Phaedrus
“THE NATURAL STATE OF THE HUMAN BRAIN,
LIKE THAT OF THE BRAINS OF MOST OF OUR
RELATIVES IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM,
IS ONE OF DISTRACTEDNESS.”
74. Socrates, as quoted in Plato’s Phaedrus
“[THE NET] RETURNS US TO OUR NATIVE
STATE OF BOTTOM-UP DISTRACTEDNESS
WHILE PRESENTING US WITH FAR MORE
DISTRACTIONS THAN OUR ANCESTORS
EVER HAD TO CONTEND WITH.”
80. “SURFERS PERFORMED SIGNIFICANTLY POORER
ON IMMEDIATE MEASURES OF MEMORY....
IT DIDN’T MATTER WHETHER THEY SURFED
INFORMATION RELATED TO THE LECTURE OR
COMPLETELY UNRELATED CONTENT.”
82. “[T]HE NET DELIVERS PRECISELY THE KIND OF
SENSORY AND COGNITIVE STIMULI—
REPETITIVE, INTENSIVE, INTERACTIVE,
ADDICTIVE—THAT HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO
RESULT IN STRONG AND RAPID ALTERATIONS IN
BRAIN CIRCUITS AND FUNCTIONS.”
89. re: Erping Zhu, Researcher
“COMPREHENSION DECLINED AS THE NUMBER
OF [HYPER-] LINKS INCREASED. READERS WERE
FORCED TO DEVOTE MORE AND MORE OF THEIR
ATTENTION AND BRAIN POWER TO EVALUATING
THE LINKS AND DECIDING WHETHER TO CLICK
ON THEM.”
90. “COMPREHENSION DECLINED AS THE NUMBER
OF [HYPER-] LINKS INCREASED. READERS WERE
FORCED TO DEVOTE MORE AND MORE OF THEIR
ATTENTION AND BRAIN POWER TO EVALUATING
THE LINKS AND DECIDING WHETHER TO CLICK
ON THEM.”
92. “‘Learning how to think’ really means
learning how to exercise some control
over how and what you think.
It means being conscious and aware
enough to choose what you pay
attention to and to choose how you will
construct meaning from experience.”
— David Foster Wallace