IN recent years, many have voiced concerns about how the amount of time being spent on electronic media is altering our lives. Educators, for example, have noted that students seem easily distracted, unable to remain focused for any length of time, and struggle with coherently expressing their thoughts in writing.

Others, linking the obsession with electronic devices with a marked decline in print media, question how we can maintain the kind of sufficiently informed, literate population that is essential for a viable democracy when our civic discourse is increasingly one of brief sound bites and biased sources.

Nicholas Carr opens his interesting and unsettling inquiry by confessing that, after years of extensive exposure to the Web, he was himself finding it increasingly difficult to retain the concentration necessary to write cogently.

He realized that, instead, he was now easily distracted by the desire — almost a compulsion — to immerse himself again in the extensive flow of information and updates that being “plugged in” offered. Upset by this, he began to investigate what science had discovered about the Internet’s impact on the brains of heavy users. This book is the result.

Earlier theories about the brain asserted that, by early adulthood, it had acquired a fixed, unchanging structure.

However, because scientists have acquired the ability to peer into the brain and study its activity in recent years, they have discovered that, in fact, the human brain possesses amazing plasticity: “old dogs” can, indeed, be taught “new tricks.” Because new or heightened demands stimulate the brain to grow and strengthen its neurons and synapses, it retains the ability to respond to newly acquired skills, habits and interests throughout our lifespan.

Equally important, and directly related to what the Internet is doing to our brains, is the fact that as we use our former abilities less, the brain reduces neuronal support for those functions. The old adage “use it or lose it” is clearly appropriate here.

This may well explain why fewer people glean their information either from print media or from reading books: as their brains adjust — and, literally, “rewire” in response to the different form and flow of information from electronic media — they lose both their interest and ability to delve into longer, more sustained and complex forms of reasoning.

While Carr notes that the Internet does offer much that is of indubitable value — such as enhanced interconnectivity, a greater sense of a world community, and incredible advancements in convenience of research capabilities — it also has drawn us away from personal interactions while eroding one of our most precious assets needed for understanding and critical thinking: quiet time for ourselves that allows us to reflect upon what we have experienced. He also notes that one of the ways in which the Internet seems to improve our capabilities — the speeding up of multi-tasking — is actually illusive.

One task at a time

This is because the brain can actually only focus on, and do well, one task at a time. It may seem as if we can juggle multiple demands at once, but studies have demonstrated that this comes with a loss of sharpness of focus and understanding of what we are doing.

Not only are we losing our ability to read deeply but, because the Net’s multiple distractions and constant inter-activity encourages us to always move quickly — as, for instance, by grabbing the most striking phrase or succinct summary of a book or article, and then darting elsewhere — we are also losing the ability to think deeply.

Our long-term memory is derived from the brain’s inclination to construct meaningful concepts from our multiple experiences, including those acquired through reading or other media.

Within our long-term memory the brain is constantly connecting what we have previously read or encountered to new thoughts or events, affording us relational connections that allow us to gain deeper understanding of our world and each other.

However, when we continuously scan material, moving rapidly from subject to subject, we leave ourselves no time for thoughts or concepts to settle, the only way that they can become part of long-term memory. If they do not become part of long-term memory, then they cannot become part of relational understanding, either. The result is that we are seriously undermining our capacity to grow in knowledge and wisdom!

“The development of a well-rounded mind,” notes Carr, “requires both an ability to find and quickly parse a wide range of information and a capacity for open-ended reflection. There needs to be time for efficient data collection and time for inefficient contemplation…. The problem today is that we’re losing our ability to strike a balance between those two very different states of mind. Mentally, we’re in perpetual locomotion….” (P. 168)

Later, he writes: “The key to memory consolidation is attentiveness. Storing explicit memories and, equally important, forming connections between them requires strong mental concentration, amplified by repetition or by intense intellectual or emotional engagement. The sharper the attention, the sharper the memory…. If we’re unable to attend to the information in our working memory, the information lass only as long as the neurons that hold it maintain their electric charge — a few seconds at best. Then it’s gone, having little or no trace in the mind.” (P. 193)

We are also jeopardizing our ability for meaningful relationships with other persons. Quick, even if frequent, electronic exchanges, posts, or shared photographs can in no way build deep relationships nor aid in true understanding of others. That requires more time, more personal presence, and more direct risk.

If we do not find a way to reduce our exposure to the Web in all its forms and to place new emphasis on forming real personal relationships, the Internet will place us at heightened risk of becoming shallow, fragile and socially clueless in our inter-personal behavior.

In effect, Carr warns, we will “empty” ourselves of our humanness and, by experiencing the world and each other online, in an ultimate irony, will also become more machine-like ourselves.

The author is a retired statesman from the US.