The Mind in the Net: What the Web is doing to our Brains
Nick Carr, pulitzer finalist
The Donoho Colloquium presented by the Neukom Institute at Dartmouth College
Monday, October 28, 2013
neukom.dartmouth.edu
Nick Carr '81, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," examines how our ever expanding use of the Net and other digital media is influencing our thoughts, perceptions, and lives. Placing the new technologies in a historical context, he argues that every medium carries an "intellectual ethic," which serves to emphasize some ways of thinking and deemphasize others. The Net encourages the fast-paced collection of small bits of information but discourages the kinds of attentive, contemplative habits of mind that are essential to rich conceptual and critical thinking. Carr provides a thought-provoking critique of the superficiality of our online lives.
Biographical note
CarrNick Carr '81 writes about technology, culture, and economics. His most recent book, "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times bestseller. Nick is also the author of two other influential books, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google (2008) and Does IT Matter? (2004), and he is working on a new book about automation. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Nick has been a columnist for The Guardian in London and has written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, The New Republic, Technology Review, and other publications. His essay "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" has been collected in several anthologies, including The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best Spiritual Writing, and The Best Technology Writing.
Nick is a former member of the Encyclopedia Britannica's editorial board of advisors and has been a writer-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley. He writes the popular blog Rough Type. Earlier in his career, he was executive editor of the Harvard Business Review. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth and an M.A., in English and American Literature and Language, from Harvard University.
