The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Chapter 4 begins with the physical history of the book. Sumerians inscribed cuneiform on clay tablets. These could be organized and preserved but were not easily transported from one place to another, so they were reserved for important government or spiritual documents. Around 2500 BC, Egyptians invented the papyrus scroll, which was more portable and durable than the clay tablet but remained expensive to produce. As demand grew, the wax tablet became popular because it was cheaper to produce and could be reused. Wax tablets could be bound together in what was a precursor to the pages of a book. During the Middle Ages, as more people became literate, a demand arose for more convenient, less time-consuming modes of reading. This led to the gradual disappearance of scripture continua, the practice of writing out words in one long string, and the beginning of a standardized written sentence structure with punctuation marks and spaces. Carr writes, “The placing of spaces between words alleviated the cognitive strain involved in deciphering text, making it possible for people to read quickly, silently, and with greater comprehension” (63). Carr references several scientists who explain how “the prolonged, undistracted reading of a book” led to deep thinking and intellectual advancement (65). The new ease of reading also led to the rise of silent reading, which in turn encouraged more adventurous, private writing and more complex prose structures. These “advances in book technology” had “social consequences” (66), such as changes in education and architecture and a new sense of intellectual individualism.

For Carr, the final transformative shift in book technology came with the arrival of the Gutenberg printing press. Prior to the invention of the press, books were copied by hand, which made them both expensive and difficult to circulate widely. The expense also drove the content of the books, which remained reserved for government, spiritual, or personal documents. The printing press significantly decreased the price of books and thus increased access for the everyday person. This led to a rise in different types of literature—news, gossip, stories—that people could read, which in turn spread literacy quickly and broadly. Ultimately, widespread literacy encouraged widespread neurological development through deep reading, leading to changes in thinking and perceiving. Carr lists several key literary works and claims, “None of these momentous intellectual achievements would have been possible without the changes in reading and writing—and in perceiving and thinking—spurred by the efficient reproduction of long forms of writing on printed pages” (76).

Carr ends Chapter 4 suggesting that just as the technology of the book ushered in cognitive and social changes, so the technology of the Internet is once again changing human consciousness: “The pathways in our brains are once again being rerouted” (77).

In the second digression, Carr describes a largely forgotten invention that he claims “had as decisive a role in shaping society as the internal combustion engine” (78): Lee de Forest’s audion. In 1906, de Forest created a device that could amplify weak electric currents, like those used for radio and telegraphs. The device, the audion, made it possible to transmit these signals wirelessly over long distances, forming the basis for all electronic media, from radio to television to the Internet. As with the printing press before it, the audion and its successors became smaller and cheaper over time, allowing electronic media to become more widespread. In 1956, de Forest published an article where he both praised his invention and worried that it would eventually make it possible for people to implant messages into one another’s brains.