What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Most of us are on the Internet on a daily basis and whether we like it or not, the Internet is affecting us. It changes how we think, how we work, and it even changes our brains.

We interviewed Nicholas Carr, the author of, "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains," about how the Internet is influencing us, our creativity, our thought processes, our ideas, and how we think.

CHECK OUT THE BOOK
"The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains," by Nicholas Carr

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[jbarkerhill]

Most people are uncomfortable being alone with their thoughts and call it "boredom". So that's probably part of the problem. Even myself though, as an introvert who likes being alone with my thoughts often, I find the internet has an addictive draw to it. It's easier to flit around on the internet, not having to exert your own thoughts, as opposed to doing more effortful activities like reading a book or playing guitar, or just sitting and contemplating. So I guess a balance between plugged-in and unplugged time is necessary.

[tydal]

A funny thing happened as I was watching this video. At 2:15, right as the video was mentioning an email coming through, I got a message from someone, and it completely derailed my train of thought.

I never realized it before, but these little distractions are now built into our devices and our everyday lives. I was previously a person who read long books and was able to focus for hours at a time. Nowadays, my brain has grown noticeably softer and I'm unable to focus for long periods of time.

Nonetheless, after I realized what had happened, I ignored the message, rewound the video and disabled all notifications on my phone after finishing. This is a real thing and it took this happening for me to realize it.

[fluffylinen]

THis video distracted me while I was finding a cure for cancer.

[madamejupiter]

I actually remember what life was before I got involved with the internet world. I actually drew a lot, concentrated better in school, read books to entertain myself, and talked to friends face to face. Now I can't go a day without being constantly on my phone and I believe that it stresses me out. Like what passwords I forgot on Social Media and other websites, worry more about what's on my page instead of reality, and other things. Heck, I barely even remember what I look up online for class. And other kids at my age or below are addicted to technology. They can't go without their smartphones or tablets for more than five minutes.

So I'm basically saying that the internet can have some fun to it, but it can also make us addicted to it.

[rebelbebel]

Too many people don't understand how to use the internet. Abandoning it would be absurd and ignoring it is just as useless. Harvest the internet's potential and give it.

[salimalbitar]

he said: "the internet is good for a lot of things"..
"but the best thing we can do to our mind is to find sometime every day to unplug and calm down and focus on something and focus on one thing at
a time"..
and "the emails and the cats will be there when you get back" !!!

[HitominekoFantasy]

I'm an artist and a writer and I enjoy the Internet and to be honest the Internet helps fuel my art and intellect. I will spend time researching, watching a documentary, listening to music, and then I will take probably hours using that information to just sit and think creatively. To philosophize and brain storm ideas and come up with ideas and opinions. I do not forget the information I learn on the Internet. For me it is not short term. And to be honest I don't understand how it is different than sitting at a desk and listening to a teacher spout relevant or irelevant information for 7 hours and hardly interacting. How's that better than sitting in front of a tv watching a documentary for three hours? Or reading a book for 5? Or reading several books all the time? Why do you think teachers show kids documentaries now instead of teaching? I don't get distracted by the Internet. That never really happens. I decide when I will get on the Internet and when I feel I've been recharged and fed my curiosity I will start forming my ideas. My ideas will distract me from learning. This applied to me in school as well. Usually the reason I wasn't paying attention in class wasn't because I saw an Internet meme but because what they were teaching gave me an idea and I started to develop that idea. That hypothesis. But it was pretty irrelevant to the class so it didn't matter. The kind of questions I asked, the teacher could not answer.

[Theloniousomori]

I personally think tv is worse because we don't have a lot of decision on tv but with the Internet there is two sides to it because some people use it like your saying but some people use it to learn and create things and do amazing things that we've never been able to do before

[epipheo]

Awesome! Glad it had a positive impact on you! Thanks for coming back to share your story with us.

[hoopathepoopa]

-Was watching a documentary for a school project
-Saw this video
-Got distracted and started watching it

[Faarthemage]

Completely agree. It bothers me that people have come to rely on this useful technology so much that they take everything as fact without second guessing, doing research, and comparing things. The internet was supposed to make humanity smarter...so why is it that it actually has stupefied us to the point where most people don't even take the time to properly grammar their comments and rely on spell check to fix their words for them and argue using Wikipedia pages.

[dashycorn]

We had your video as an audio visual comprehension task in school! :)

[WildDragon]

I feel that people like me - people with ADHD - are actually unique in that we can sometimes learn things faster than other people. But even for those people with ADHD who don't learn faster, the ability to think about things and make connections that most other people wouldn't is an interesting ability that allows us to come up with things no one else would have thought of from our perspective.

[legomaster]

To be honest, this was a good video but being distracted by new things, though more frequent now, is not knew. Historians say that Leonardo Da Vinci never stayed focused and constantly switched between tasks. What people need to focus on is practicing moderation, for a certain period of time improve you long term memory by relaxing and just thinking and go on the internet the other part. 

[djazzy]

Unfortunately, most youngsters, that should see and understand this very important video, probably lost the attention during the first minute of it and went to check what the cats are doing on another channel :(

[Kaff]

Wow that was really interesting stuff wanna learn more think I'll Google it

[Gabriel-erpp]

I learned more on YouTube than I ever did at school.

[MerryMohProductions]

After watching this, I think it might to a lot of us good to steer aways from the internet for a long time, and focus on other things. Unfortunetely the internet is pretty much the only other way for some of us to socialize; and for us creative individuals in particular and share our artwork and gain feedback.

[Rideout]

Fuck sakes. I was about to watch a cat video, but I thought what he said in the video "I need to go do something, when I come back, it will still be here" When I got back the fucking video was deleted.

[theseanwardshow]

Most people have long ago assumed they're not going to create a great monument of culture! Most people don't care and just want to be a robot.