Shallows journal - Book Report/Review Example

Following such arguments, the essay is intended to be based on the writing of Nicholas Carr on the use of internet in his book titled as ‘The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains’. With this concern, the essay considers two theories in order to frame the review of Carr’s book. The objective of the essay is thus to describe the opinions developed by Nicholas Carr in his text, on the aspect of internet utilization. Arguments Encountered in the Text of Nicholas Carr The arguments of Carr (2010) had been fundamentally based on understanding the impact led by the substantial use of internet.

Carr has thus portrayed that substantial use of internet is changing human psychology on a continuous basis, especially with respect to their cognitive decision making skills and concentration strengths. Internet is further attempting towards renovating the neural paths of gaining knowledge among the humans by a significant extent. Carr (2010) has therefore claimed that spending longer time in electronic devices such as computers and internet media can hinder the creative and critical thinking of people.

He has also stated that students who surf internet during classroom lecture can preserve low information for a longer period of time than those who concentrate on following lectures. However, other authors opposed Carr’s fact on utilization of internet. According to them, changing in human brainpower is not the consequence of high utilization of internet; rather, the internet has exposed the weakness of human attention (Carr, 2010). In his words, “Bruce Friedman, who blogs about the use of computers in medicine, has also described how the internet is altering his mental habits” (Carr, 2010: 7).

The arguments of Carr (2010) have been based on online readings. The major problem of internet reading is identified as the frequency of hyperlinks which act as a barrier for constant reading behavior. A hyperlink causes readers to stop reading and initiate them to take decision regarding clicking on the link with the expectation to gain information which might or might not be relevant to the main article. On the other hand, Carr (2010) examined that books represent a more passive environment than online reading, as book readings allow human mind to focus on the words instead of constant searching for new information.

In the beginning of his text, Carr (2010) has depicted that spending time on internet has generated complications for people to focus effectively on reading books and long articles. The author thereby postulates that frequent usage of internet may diminish the capability of human to concentrate. He introduces his arguments with several narrations from bloggers on their complex and continuously altering reading behaviors. Carr’s studies have thus suggested that internet has generated a new kind of reading for people (Standage, 2011).

The view on internet presented by Carr (2010) has been argued among authors who stated that internet does not distract attentions; rather, it assists people to develop new thoughts, where they can rapidly sort out huge amount of data and generate information. On the contrary, Carr’s view has been agreed by several authors who depicted that internet harm on deep thinking process of human behavior; however, simultaneously, it also makes people more informed offering them the virtues of a