An illustration and extension of Nicholas Carr's book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. Intended for an educational audience, with embedded videos.

1. www.spirobolos.com
W H AT T H E
I N T E R N E T
IS DOING TO
OUR BRAINS
Spiro Bolos: boloss@newtrier.k12.il.us

2. Based on the book by Nicholas Carr
THE SHALLOWS
W H AT T H E
I N T E R N E T
IS DOING TO
OUR STUDENTS

3. THEMEDIUMISTHEMESSAGE

6. THEBRAINISPLASTIC

8. Edward Taub’s experiment

9. Edward Taub’s experiment

11. Pascual-Leone’s experiment

15. Norman Doidge, M.D.: The Brain That Changes Itself
“PLASTIC DOES NOT MEAN ELASTIC.”

16. Norman Doidge, M.D.: The Brain That Changes Itself
“ONCE WE HAVE WIRED NEW CIRCUITRY IN
OUR BRAIN, ‘WE LONG TO KEEP IT ACTIVATED....
THE BRAIN MAP SPACE FOR THOSE SKILLS
IS TURNED OVER TO THE [NEW] SKILLS
WE PRACTICE INSTEAD’.”

17. THETOOLSHAPESTHEMIND

18. 1. Extends STRENGTH
2. Extends SENSES
3. Reshapes NATURE
4. Extends MENTAL POWER
4 Kinds of Technology

19. Extends Strength

20. Extends Strength

21. Extends Senses

22. Extends Senses

23. Reshapes Nature

24. Reshapes Nature

25. 1. Extends STRENGTH
2. Extends SENSES
3. Reshapes NATURE
4. Extends MENTAL POWER
4 Kinds of Technology

26. “Intellectual Technologies”

27. “EVERY INTELLECTUAL TECHNOLOGY...
EMBODIES AN INTELLECTUAL ETHIC,
A SET OF ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT HOW THE
HUMAN MIND WORKS OR SHOULD WORK.”

28. exemplia gratia
e.g.,

29. “THE MAP ‘ADVANCED THE EVOLUTION OF
ABSTRACT THINKING’ THROUGHOUT SOCIETY.’”
Arthur Robinson, cartographic historian
Arthur Robinson, cartographic historian

30. David S. Landes, Revolution in Time
“THE PERSONALIZATION OF PRECISELY
MEASURED TIME ‘WAS A MAJOR STIMULUS TO
THE INDIVIDUALISM THAT WAS AN EVER MORE
SALIENT ASPECT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION.’”

31. Thorstein Veblen, sociologist
TECHNOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTALISTS
vs
TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISTS

32. James Carey, media critic
“TECHNOLOGY IS TECHNOLOGY. IT IS A MEANS
FOR COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORTATION
OVER SPACE, AND NOTHING MORE.”

33. versus

34. Langdon Winner, political scientist
“TECHNOLOGIES ARE NOT MERELY AIDS TO
HUMAN ACTIVITY, BUT [ARE] ALSO
POWERFUL FORCES ACTING TO RESHAPE
THAT ACTIVITY AND ITS MEANING.”

35. “TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES OFTEN MARK
TURNING POINTS IN HISTORY.”

38. “AND WHEN WE HAND DOWN OUR HABITS OF
THOUGHT TO OUR CHILDREN, THROUGH THE
EXAMPLES WE SET, THE SCHOOLING WE
PROVIDE, AND THE MEDIA WE USE, WE HAND
DOWN AS WELL THE MODIFICATIONS IN THE
STRUCTURE OF OUR BRAINS.”

39. “AND WHEN WE HAND DOWN OUR HABITS OF
THOUGHT TO OUR CHILDREN, THROUGH THE
EXAMPLES WE SET, THE SCHOOLING WE
PROVIDE, AND THE MEDIA WE USE, WE HAND
DOWN AS WELL THE MODIFICATIONS IN THE
STRUCTURE OF OUR BRAINS.”

40. AHISTORYOFLITERACY

41. Socrates, as quoted in Plato’s Phaedrus
“FAR BETTER THAN THE WORD WRITTEN IN THE
‘WATER’ OF INK IS ‘AN INTELLIGENT WORD
GRAVEN IN THE SOUL OF THE LEARNER.’”

42. Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid
“MODERN STUDIES SHOW THAT
NEURAL ACTIVITY...DOUBLES OR TRIPLES
WHEN WE LOOK AT MEANINGFUL SYMBOLS
AS OPPOSED TO MEANINGLESS DOODLES.”

43. exemplia gratia
e.g.,

44. cuneiform

45. papyrus

46. wax tablet

47. codex

48. “ITSHARDFORUSTOIMAGINETODAYBUTNO
SPACESSEPARATEDTHEWORDSINEARLY
WRITINGINTHEBOOKSINKEDBYSCRIBES
WORDSRANTOGETHERWITHOUTANYBREAK
ACROSSEVERYLINEONEVERYPAGEINWHATS
NOWREFERREDTOASSCRIPTURACONTINUA”
Arthur Robinson, cartographic historian

49. “IT’S HARD FOR US TO IMAGINE TODAY, BUT NO
SPACES SEPARATED THE WORDS IN EARLY
WRITING. IN THE BOOKS INKED BY SCRIBES,
WORDS RAN TOGETHER WITHOUT ANY BREAK
ACROSS EVERY LINE ON EVERY PAGE, IN WHAT’S
NOW REFERRED TO AS SCRIPTURA CONTINUA.”

50. “WHEN HE READ, HIS EYES SCANNED THE PAGE
& HIS HEART EXPLORED THE MEANING, BUT HIS
VOICE WAS SILENT & HIS TONGUE WAS STILL.”
St. Augustine, Confessions

51. Gutenberg’s Letterpress

54. 1 FLORIN = 1 COPY
or
1 FLORIN = 342 COPIES

55. Effect on the Reader

56. “THE ABILITY TO FOCUS ON A SINGLE TASK,
RELATIVELY UNINTERRUPTED, [WAS A]
STRANGE ANOMALY IN THE HISTORY OF OUR
PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT.”
Vaughan Bell, Research Psychologist

57. “THEY THOUGHT DEEPLY
AS THEY READ DEEPLY.”

58. Effect on the Writer

60. “IN THE DIGITAL MARKETPLACE,
PUBLICATION BECOMES AN ONGOING PROCESS
RATHER THAN A DISCRETE EVENT,
AND REVISION CAN GO ON INDEFINITELY.”

61. “We believe a tool that can open up the millions
of pages in the world’s books can help remove
the barriers between people and information.”

62. “A SEARCH ENGINE OFTEN DRAWS OUR
ATTENTION TO...A FEW WORDS OR SENTENCES
THAT HAVE STRONG RELEVANCE TO WHATEVER
WE’RE SEARCHING FOR AT THE MOMENT,
WHILE PROVIDING LITTLE INCENTIVE FOR
TAKING IN THE WORK AS A WHOLE.”

63. Steven Johnson, Wall Street Journal
“WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS WILL BEGIN...
CRAFTING SECTIONS EXPLICITLY IN THE
HOPES THAT THEY WILL DRAW IN [A] STEADY
STREAM OF SEARCH VISITORS.”

66. AUNIVERSALMEDIUM

67. 8½ hours

69. Cory Doctorow, Author
“AN ECOSYSTEM OF
INTERRUPTION TECHNOLOGIES.”

73. Socrates, as quoted in Plato’s Phaedrus
“THE NATURAL STATE OF THE HUMAN BRAIN,
LIKE THAT OF THE BRAINS OF MOST OF OUR
RELATIVES IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM,
IS ONE OF DISTRACTEDNESS.”

74. Socrates, as quoted in Plato’s Phaedrus
“[THE NET] RETURNS US TO OUR NATIVE
STATE OF BOTTOM-UP DISTRACTEDNESS
WHILE PRESENTING US WITH FAR MORE
DISTRACTIONS THAN OUR ANCESTORS
EVER HAD TO CONTEND WITH.”

78. + 100 words
+ 4.4 seconds

80. “SURFERS PERFORMED SIGNIFICANTLY POORER
ON IMMEDIATE MEASURES OF MEMORY....
IT DIDN’T MATTER WHETHER THEY SURFED
INFORMATION RELATED TO THE LECTURE OR
COMPLETELY UNRELATED CONTENT.”

81. SWIMMINGINTHESHALLOWS

82. “[T]HE NET DELIVERS PRECISELY THE KIND OF
SENSORY AND COGNITIVE STIMULI—
REPETITIVE, INTENSIVE, INTERACTIVE,
ADDICTIVE—THAT HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO
RESULT IN STRONG AND RAPID ALTERATIONS IN
BRAIN CIRCUITS AND FUNCTIONS.”

83. “A MIND CONSUMED WITH A MEDIUM”

84. “FREQUENT INTERRUPTIONS SCATTER
OUR THOUGHTS, WEAKEN OUR MEMORY,
AND MAKE US TENSE AND ANXIOUS.”

85. STM vs LTM

86. STM vs LTM

87. > HIGH “COGNITIVE LOAD”

89. re: Erping Zhu, Researcher
“COMPREHENSION DECLINED AS THE NUMBER
OF [HYPER-] LINKS INCREASED. READERS WERE
FORCED TO DEVOTE MORE AND MORE OF THEIR
ATTENTION AND BRAIN POWER TO EVALUATING
THE LINKS AND DECIDING WHETHER TO CLICK
ON THEM.”

90. “COMPREHENSION DECLINED AS THE NUMBER
OF [HYPER-] LINKS INCREASED. READERS WERE
FORCED TO DEVOTE MORE AND MORE OF THEIR
ATTENTION AND BRAIN POWER TO EVALUATING
THE LINKS AND DECIDING WHETHER TO CLICK
ON THEM.”

91. WHAT WILL YOU DECIDE?

92. “‘Learning how to think’ really means
learning how to exercise some control
over how and what you think.
It means being conscious and aware
enough to choose what you pay
attention to and to choose how you will
construct meaning from experience.”
— David Foster Wallace

93. • “The Machine is Us/ing Us”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=NLlGopyXT_g
• Ancient Map: http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/09/20/
knMAPS_main,0.jpg
• Clock: http://www.clockguy.com/SiteRelated/SiteGraphics/RefGraphics/
BallWatchCo/BallWatchGalleryClock.jpg
• Book: http://woodtyper.com/wp/uploads/2009/09/gutenberg initial.jpg
• Projector: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/
Film_projector3.jpg
• Lecture hall: http://gep.ub.fu berlin.de/wordpress/wp content/uploads/

94. • Neuron: http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/
ch02_human_nervous_system/02classicneuron.jpg
• Violin player: http://bolstablog.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/joshua
bell.jpg
• Piano keys: http://www.leepianoservice.com/images/keys.jpg
• London taxi: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4855HSQdFrw/StQJ6JuehDI/
AAAAAAAAD48/lMmWHV5rQtw/London Taxi+Driver.JPG
• Brain diagram: http://www.sharpbrains.com/wp content/uploads/
2008/06/sfo limbic brain with labels.JPG
• Hippocampus detail: http://www.bmj.com/content/334/7597/789/

95. • Pocket watch: http://retrothing.typepad.com/.a/
6a00d83452989a69e201156f31b940970c 800wi
• Rubber band: http://healthylifecarenews.com/wp content/uploads/
2010/11/Rubber band.jpg
• Horse and plow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevor dennis/
2520284728/sizes/o/in/photostream/
• Fighter jet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vermininc/3360111818/sizes/
l/in/photostream/
• Microscope: http://www.tri nitro.com/images/gallery_images/
microscope.png
• Dam: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirgon/572421488/sizes/o/in/
photostream/

96. • Birth control pills: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stacylynn/
2480078234/sizes/l/in/photostream/
• Geiger counter: http://www.flickr.com/photos/redfiremg/3952257530/
sizes/o/in/photostream/
• Typewriter: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olivander/3770350264/sizes/z/
in/photostream/
• Sextant: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/images/560/F/51/
F5183 001.jpg
• Newspaper: http://thecreativepunk.familylife.ws/blog/wp content/
uploads/2010/07/newspaper_sxc.jpg
• School: http://lincoln.d303.org/Portals/7/Lincoln%20School
%20Drawing.jpg

97. • Computer: http://oasisgrace.com/dev/wp content/uploads/2009/09/
computer.jpg
• Books: http://www.k state.edu/womenscenter/Violencework
%20Advocacy/Womens%20Center%20Materials/Materials/Images/
Literature3.jpg
• Old phone: http://www.flickr.com/photos/esparta/2697847277/sizes/o/
in/photostream/
• Lima: http://farm4.static.flickr.com
3346/3521309429_9dd061aae2_b.jpg
• Cortez: http://www.aoc.gov/cc/photo gallery/images/cortez_71172_2.jpg
• Wax tablet: http://www.christianimageresource.org/images/
wax_tablets_stylus.jpg

98. • Papyrus: http://www.yourdictionary.com/images/articles/lg/
954.PaperScroll.jpg
• Codex: http://www.n4hccs.org/projects/communications/youthpages/
TimeTravel/codex.jpg
• Socrates: http://www.pima.gov/publicdefender/Assets/Images/Misc
%20Images/Paintings/socrates.jpg
• St. Ambrose: http://ericsammons.com/blog/wp content/uploads/
2010/12/ambrose.jpg
• Lion and Savannah: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/ kjxR1XS0gxE/
TbBclld4pdI/AAAAAAAAErg/LTrakk366m0/s1600/african cats 055.jpg
• “Lost”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qwrrty/2100913578/sizes/l/in/
photostream/

99. • Revision: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicmcphee/2756494307/sizes/l/
in/photostream/
• Gutenberg’s Letterpress: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilhei/
109404349/sizes/l/in/photostream/
• Text on Screen: http://www.flickr.com/photos/altemark/1598056760/
sizes/l/in/photostream/
• Evolution Web 1.0, Web 2.0 to Web 3.0: http://youtu.be/bsNcjya56v8
• Television: http://neversixfeetunder.synthasite.com/resources/
fuzzy20tv20screen20.jpg
• Cell Phone Screen: http://hotcellularphone.com/wp content/uploads/

100. • iMac Screen: http://www.sweetwater.com/images/items/1800/
iMac24MDP26 xlarge.jpg
• Google logo: http://pcmguy.com/wp content/uploads/2010/09/google
logo.jpg
• Losing the Forest (for the trees): http://www.flickr.com/photos/andywon/
3315505901/in/photostream/
• iPad 2: http://www.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/laptops/ipad 2 uk price.jpg
• Kindle DX: http://www.geek.com/wp content/uploads/2009/05/
kindledx.jpg
• The Filter Bubble: http://www.progressivereader.com/wp content/

101. • Blackberry: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephangeyer/3501272881/
sizes/o/in/photostream/
• Bathtub: http://www.americanhomeplus.com/Product/Main/
AmericanBathFactory/T150B WH.jpg
• Faucet: http://www.tubz.com/images/Barclay/4022.jpg
• Thimble: http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/fatbob/fatbob0808/
fatbob080800018/3486003 old thimble on white background.jpg
• “Blissed out ambient loop”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=HMFYOUEZq3s
• “Skylight Facing Myself”: Crashed By Car (Fictions & Fires EP)

102. • Wristwatch (“meeting”): http://www.flickr.com/photos/poolie/
2250698836/sizes/l/in/photostream/
• The Thinker: http://jlinder.com/resources/photo/2008/2008.10.30.jpg
• Girl on laptop: http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/girl%20on
%20comp..jpg
• Palm Pilot: http://www.123print.com/Designs/100095/Palm
Pilot 10009567 SB.jpg
• Gutenberg Bible: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjamingolub/
5203602006/sizes/l/in/photostream/
• Google Books, “What’s the Issue?”: http://books.google.com/