Web users will soon be unable to read (books)
Translated by Sophie Balaguer. See the original article in French
Article also translated in:
We are living a revolution. In the past, the evolution of a society took several generations when today, several major changes will occur in a man’s life time. Because informational tools we use today are different from the ones we used yesterday. Writing, books and IT alter our brain. For example, the simple use of a hyperlink changes our way of thinking. That idea – and the concept of brain plasticity – is at the core of Nicolas Carr’s third book What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains: the Shallows. According to him, web users will soon be unable to read a 140 signs book… This summer, Louis Naugès, French blogger, businessman and international lecturer expert in new technologies has read Carr’s book. He gives his comments through 2 posts; here’s a short version (for E-Blogs) of the first one.
After Does IT matters? and The big switch, Nicolas Carr is publishing his third book, with this disturbing title What the Internet is Doing to Our Brain: the Shallows.
You’re interested in the evolution of humanity? Whether you’re a websurfer or not, you will read it with interest, surprise and worry; it is about major and disturbing themes and you will feel concerned!
It is an “old style” book, paper made, without diagram, chart, image or Internet link!
Discovering neurosciences recent researches:
Carr analyses neurosciences discoveries concerning our ways of thinking: contrary to old ideas, “brain’s wiring” does not end with teenage years.
Brain analysis improving tools along with dozens of experiments show the surprising plasticity of the human brain: neuronal circuits relative to hearing, touching, sight, thought, learning or memory… change, quickly, whatever your age.
Our brain is “massively changeable”; this capacity, although slightly decreasing through time, never disappears.
Plasticity does not mean elasticity. When our brain develops new connections, the old and lesser used ones die.
A few illustrations:
At age 34, Friedrich Nietzsche was gradually loosing his sight and had problems reading and writing.
1882! He buys a writing machine made by Danish Malling-Hansen.
After mastering the keyboard, he starts writing again, eyes closed. His readers notice his style has changed: his texts are denser and shorter. Nietzsche explains: “You are right, our writing tools affect the creation of our thoughts.”
What will happen tomorrow, with SMS and Twitter?
Two groups, one of trained web users and the other one, of people who never surfed on the web, are asked to use a browser in order to do simple tasks; the activated brain zones of these two groups are different.
The untrained group learns how to surf one hour a day during six days. Then, tests prove that after just six hours training, the same brain zones are activated for both groups! Just six hours!
What could possibly happen after hours and hours of websurfing?
“We become what we think”
Changes in our brain can be caused by thoughts only, without any physical actions. Two groups had to learn a simple melody to play on the piano; the first group, “physically”, actually practising piano. The second one, “virtually”, sitting at a piano without touching the keys.
Changes observed in both groups brains were the same.
Plasticity is the “normal state” of the nervous system all life long.
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