This past weekend I had the unfortunate experience of reading a bit of Nicholas Carr’s “The Shallows”. I only read the forward and chapter 5, which was our required reading in Hist 390. Even though I was annoyed through pretty much the entire portion I read, I am curious about the remainder of the book. Perhaps O’Malley could highlight other portions of the book that specifically lays out Carr’s arguments, I didn’t actually come across an argumentative statement in the parts I read. I won’t have time before class tomorrow to read more of Carr’s book, which I think to be mostly a good thing, since studying for chemistry occupies the majority of my time.

Why did I dislike “The Shallows” so much? For starters, as partially stated above, I couldn’t find one definitive statement of Carr’s beliefs and reasons for writing the book. I read lots of statistics about internet usage, and lots of quotes from other people, but not much about his actual views. The entire tone of “The Shallows” is negative. You can almost feel the disdain rolling off the pages, wafting towards you with an air of superiority.

Apparently the the internet as a whole is bad news. I disagree, I hold the opinion that the internet is neutral, such as most inanimate objects are, until you actually do something with it. To my disagreement Carr quoted another author saying that basically anyone who holds my view are technological idiots. Real mature Carr, resorting to name calling to back up your arguments. “The Shallows” reads like the dying ideals of  a past generation and a writers frustration with the ever forward march of technology versus that of the dying medium of print. Sorry there isn’t as much money in print Carr, get with the times!

I believe I wrote 3 to 4 pages of notes about my disagreements with Carr, I don’t have them with me or I would include that here.

Hopefully I can express my views in class tomorrow, sometimes other students pipe up with views that are similar to mine, and I don’t want to basically say “Yeah, that’s what I think too.”. Guess I have to be quicker on the draw.