« About Facebook | Main | From hunter-gatherer to cutter-paster »
May I toot my own horn?
December 13, 2011
Two nice notices of The Shallows appeared out of the online blue today, and doggone it if I'm not going to share them. At Paste, Kurt Armstrong reviewed the book, calling it "essential":
It lays out a sweeping portrait of the thing we’re moving too quickly to see. It’s easy for someone like me to piece together opinions or carve rhetorically charged rants about the deleterious effects of our growing technological dependency. In contrast, Carr’s book bursts with research — from neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists and sociologists — and careful analysis. And anxious as Carr might be about what the Internet is doing to our brains, his writing isn’t shrill or self-righteous. It’s intelligent, deeply researched, articulate and, much to my dismay, most likely prophetic: “The great danger we face as we become more intimately involved with our computers … is that we’ll begin to lose our humanness, to sacrifice the very qualities that separate us from machines.”
And at The Millions, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer pegged The Shallows as "the best book I read last year":
Carr persuasively — and with great subtlety and beauty — makes the case that it is not only the content of our thoughts that are radically altered by phones and computers, but the structure of our brains — our ability to have certain kinds of thoughts and experiences. And the kinds of thoughts and experiences at stake are those that have defined our humanity. Carr is not a proselytizer, and he is no techno-troglodyte. He is a profoundly sharp thinker and writer — equal parts journalist, psychologist, popular science writer, and philosopher. I have not only given this book to numerous friends, I actually changed my life in response to it.
Suddenly, I'm in the mood to go out and do some caroling.
Comments
If I could right as clearly and succinctly as those reviewers, I would likely say the same thing.
Posted by: Scott Holloway ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.roughtype.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 13, 2011 09:33 PM
Should repeat Jonathan Safran Foer with a slight change:
I have not only told my friends and students about this book, I actually changed my life in response to it.
And with joy.
Posted by: Siddharth Soni at December 14, 2011 05:34 AM
It also comes up in this insightful review essay in The New Inquiry, "The Trouble With Digital Conservatism". It's sort of a hybrid Marxist/left-conservative look at online production--you may find it interesting.
http://thenewinquiry.com/post/13786656384/the-trouble-with-digital-conservatism
Posted by: Dan Miller at December 14, 2011 06:12 PM
Dan, Thanks for the pointer to Rob Horning's piece. It's a sharp analysis. Nick
Posted by: Nick Carr at December 15, 2011 12:22 AM
I agree. This is well-deservied recognition of a book I continue to share and urge others to read...and apply.
Thanks for writing it Mr. Carr!
Posted by: Michael at December 30, 2011 06:05 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
Now in paperback:
Pulitzer Prize Finalist
"Riveting" -San Francisco Chronicle
"Rewarding" -Financial Times
"Revelatory" -Booklist
The Cloud, demystified:
"Future Shock for the web-apps era" -Fast Company
"Ominously prescient" -Kirkus Reviews
"Riveting stuff" -New York Post
Greatest hits
Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians
The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock's avatar
Flight of the wingless coffin fly
Other writing
The end of corporate computing
Nick's first book:
Order from Amazon
Visit book site