In 2008, science and technology writer Nicholas Carr asked in The Atlantic if Google is “making us stupid.” His latest book is an effort to answer that question and, more broadly, to explore how the tools of the Internet age are changing the way people find and use information.

    Carr spends much of the book exploring how technology has shaped human habits of information consumption*.

    Written language, for instance, made the poet-historian’s memory less important. With Gutenberg’s printing press, reading became widespread and the human brain adapted to* new demands. Now, the shift to online information is causing further neural* changes but, Carr argues, mostly to ill effect.

    Carr believes that the Internet encourages distraction* and superficiality*.

    The sheer volume of information overwhelms* anyone’s ability to absorb it. So instead of becoming absorbed, users browse from link to link to Twitter feed, gaining a broad but shallow appreciation of the available information.

    Carr cites psychology* and neuroscience* experiments to show how vulnerable* the human brain is to distraction and how such inattention* can reduce comprehension and memory.

    While Carr’s social history of an information revolution is solid, his concerns about how the Internet may change neural mechanics are based on limited data. (SD-Agencies)