Swimming through "The Shallows" (Part One)

As promised, I have read through the first half of Nicholas Carr’s book, “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.”

This section of the book is dedicated to setting up the scientific and historical basis for Carr’s main argument: that the Internet and the new digital literacies associated with online communication are physically rewiring our brains and changing the way we think about and process information. Carr discusses the biological phenomenon of neuroplasticity as well as the cause and (cognitive) effect of invention and innovation, which he then logically connects them to prove his point.

Let’s walk through his points together, shall we?

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is a phenomenon in the brain that allows our neurons and brain cells to rewire themselves to create new connections, habits, and behaviors. This phenomenon has always been present in the human (and animal) brain, but scientists really began to understand its power and the implications thereof starting in the late 1960s. Originally thought as a “healing mechanism, triggered by trauma to the brain or the sensory organs,” scientist soon began to understand that plasticity is, as Alvaro Pascual-Leone puts it, “the normal ongoing state of the nervous system throughout the lifespan.”

Carr references a variety of case studies and experiments, the most interesting of which involved London cab drivers in the 1990s. The experiment scanned the brains of drivers with “between two and forty-two years of experience.” When compared to the control, they found the taxi drivers posterior hippocampus was much larger than normal, and grew over time with experience. In contrast, their anterior hippocampus was “smaller than average, apparently a result of the need to accommodate the enlargement for the posterior area.”

From all of these case studies and experiments, we can draw a few conclusions about neuroplasticity and the brain:

1. Neuroplasticity is present in human and animal brains, and is not purely limited to healing or recovering from trauma.
2. Repetitive physical activity can rewire our brains, but so too can purely mental activity.
3. The rewiring of our neurons takes time, repetition, and input. Changes in brain function are subtle, and develop in stages.
4. “Plastic does not mean elastic.” Our new rewired pathways take time to form, and “tend to hold onto their changed state.” (This explains why bad habits and addictions can be so difficult to break).
5. As in the case of the taxi drivers, space in our brains is limited. As we become stronger in one area, we can weaken in another. Carr states, “just as the brain can build new or stronger circuits through physical or mental practice, those circuits can weaken or dissolve with neglect.”
6. Nothing is permanent. With “concerted effort” we can “redirect our neural signals to rebuild the skills we’ve lost.”

The Cause and Effect of Invention

After Carr has established that our brains can change and rewire themselves to adapt to a variety of new situations, he then discusses the role in which new tools and inventions can play in this rewiring process.

Carr argues that there are four categories of innovation:

1. Physical - these inventions make us stronger, faster, more efficient; think combine harvester or cotton gin
2. Sensory - these inventions enhance our senses; microscopes, telescopes, satellites...
3. Evolutionary/Scientific - these inventions “reshape nature” to fit our needs; antibiotics, pesticides, GMOs...
4. Intellectual - these inventions “extend or support our mental powers”

It is upon this fourth category, the “intellectual technologies,” where Carr sharpens his focus. His argument is a little abstract, and not as easy to follow as the others, but he eventually makes his case. The basis of his argument is that while all inventions and innovations have historical, societal, cultural, and ethical effects, intellectual technologies have an additional, cognitive, effect. He argues that these tools eventually rewire our brains, and change the way we think.

For example, Carr cites the famous thinker Friedrich Nietzsche's typewriter as an intellectual invention that reshaped his brain and writing style to fit the new tool. Because of multiple health issues, Nietzsche relied on his typewriter heavily in his later years. A close friend and colleague, Heinrich Köselitz, “noticed a change in the style of his writing.” Köeslitz noted that his style became more forceful, tighter, and more “telegraphic.” Nietzsche agreed, concluding that “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.”

Carr’s second, and even stronger, example is the invention of the printing press. Just as the rewiring of our brains takes time, so also did the evolution of literacy - of reading and writing in it’s most traditional sense. While the printing press didn’t change the world overnight, it certainly changed the world in a very permanent way. As soon as reading and writing books became the standard form of education and communication, our brains changed in a dramatic way as well. Linear, logical, and reflective thought became the intellectual ideal, replacing the emphasis on the lyrical and artistic ways of the oral tradition intended to help with memorization. Knowledge became less about remembering and more about analyzing and synthesizing, and so our brains have changed to facilitate these new processes.

How the Internet Fits

The Internet is the new black. The Black, of course, being the intellectual tools we use to communicate. Our tools are changing again, and therefore our brains will as well. There is a cycle of cognitive evolution here, which I’ve illustrated below:

Impacts on Modern Education

As the cycle of cognitive evolution continues to shift, we as educators need to teach to this new kind of brain. Just as Plato’s written theses replaced the oral rhetoric of Socrates, digital literacies and citizenship need to become our new focus in the educational world. Our lessons need to match the societies and communities our students will eventually serve.

Students are still reading and writing - some could even argue that they are reading and writing more than any generation before them - but the tools have changed. We have to be ready to help our students navigate these new tools, tools which will shape their habits and behaviors whether we are involved in the process or not. I for one, would like to insure that our students develop habits and behaviors that serve them for the better.