Nicholas Carr | What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

[@BTATSband]

I find it troubling that on a video discussing the negative ramifications of distraction, there's an in-stream ad EVERY. THREE. MINUTES.

[@astere0s]

me too!

[@Zach-eo8ru]

I find it distracting there’s even a video about watching videos and stuff on your phone itself. Don’t you think it should’ve stayed a book because we’re using screen time to watch this.... sorry I’m just overthinking things

[@Miguelillo1696]

@@Zach-eo8ru Well... actually the optimal way of receiving this information is going to the talk instead of watching of hearing it on line, but if people around the world can't go there, upload it on a vídeo recording, I think, is the better way to make the message the more unchanged(?)

[@ВасилийНемцов-й8я]

Hey, there's an extension for browser that can block ads. Its name is uBlock.

[@jonathondefina4452]

Premium Gang

[@terencerucker3244]

Kee-riste! This short lecture was interrupted by FOUR ads! This just proves what Carr is trying to explain. Now, what was I saying??

[@WhatIveLearned]

Excellent talk

[@powersavage]

Love you, good Sir

[@vxious1]

I love your content. Found out about Nicholas Carr from you. Thank you

[@slevenkelevra4750]

I read this comment in your voice

[@mehretbiruk]

i love you

[@keyanmirazimi3058]

Currently writing an essay over this... Thanks Nicholas Carr!

[@gallooms]

I thought you were a real dude for a second.

[@CookieMonsterTwist]

I am writing an essay as well lol

[@dubugga]

Ditto. 10 page research paper.

[@janeswurld]

in class essay as my final on this book...it was a great read though.

[@animegame100]

we are addicted to left brain altering... the "cheeseyness" in videos allows that...

[@ReadingScience_]

Another great presentation from Carr

[@Ykhraam]

I really want to do a 1 month computer detox but like... everything is so tied to the internet

[@earbudss]

I did it and it was preeety easy tbh

[@craigcraig6248]

Start wherever you can start man

[@dr.julianataylor4312]

I did 4 days of mindlessness..just connecting to people, no internet, no writing, no reading, my spirit rose up, my heart opened, and I felt nothing but divine love for all people.

[@jokiro7777]

mindfulness?

[@Skansion]

This is actually called mindfulness, it is really the opposite of mindlessness.

[@endlessmysteries9047]

thank you very much sir..

[@mathieubethtan2921]

i read this book. Changed my life

[@cartergomez5390]

What about the people that actually like social media and technology? It is the way I improve my life and it is my entire life.

[@levjanashvili752]

Like cannabis-fueled munchies at an all-you-can-eat buffet, our appetite for information meets infinite supply as the content tsunami crashes upon our consciousness. The consequences of this phenomenon are as clear as the routes of escape. You can always unplug. You can cultivate an awareness of your relationship with information. Abstinence is not an option, but conscious consumption is.

[@esthermarina8318]

I haven't yet met a single person who is able to consciously consume. It's a web designed to addict...no escape

[@DemonPikachu]

You poet.

[@bkkb6]

Who opened another tab while watching this?

[@couragestrength5398]

very good point!

[@JohnCahillChapel]

Right... novelty has driven all this for long enough... among other ...

[@skszilor21]

Me,I did

[@bradenrodriguez5183]

I'm opening another tab as I write this.

[@nicolerubino5815]

I did because I wanted to verify that this dude is a boomer

[@ms.pirate]

The ads are distracting, I'll read his book

[@alyxyxzy]

Ok 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@jeanalessandro]

Brazil is one of the most rising countries in the use of these fast media information. Here there´s no one guy talking about this problem. It´s Sad.

[@nathanchoi3763]

The problem is, what if you become the minority who is original, creative, in-depth, critical, as we do not use smart phone and always seek information anymore. What if you become someone who always have more original, valuable, insightful thoughts, ideas, feelings to share in different circumstances? The majority people, those who use smartphones, addicted to new information, shallow-minded, may just immediately take what you share and got and use it or try it on their own lives without much considerations, understanding, and support. They will see you as consumable as the information-providers on the internet, and you are possibly be left alone with them benefiting their lives from the efforts you spent. This is a problem which no one is able to solve yet.

[@melissaolivares4782]

learn to find comfort in the sound of your steps walking away from people, habits, and ideals not longer meant for you

[@katarzynak.6934]

Extremely useful and inspiring lecture!

[@marvinvoorhees]

I don't know if the studies that suggest these conclusions took a close look on previous generations. Is the only thing that in my opinion doesn't add up. I'm not sure we were substantially more efficient in the 1990's, or that people had way more critical thinking in the 1940's, or amazing working memory in the 1930's. I'd like to hear about some generational comparisons from Carr or any other researcher supporting this theory.

[@halaabdulqader5197]

Man I love you 💘 Your book is a life changer Thanks for your efforts

[@MissNikiRae]

Why is there an ad every 5 minutes? It's completely going against what Carr wants for us to improve ourselves. I get nothing is free but just have the ads at the beginning or end of the video.

[@fcpsradiologist342]

3 years training in radiology and multitasking really impacted my training

[@martinirving3824]

The ability to think critically and conceptually is being lost, and very quickly. This is the take home message that can't be emphasized enough. Add to that an education system that doesn't teach critical thinking skills because SOL testing is all-consuming and we have a serious problem. It's literally Mike Judge's Idiocracy scenario 500 years ahead of schedule.

[@zurichsee706]

This is so fking true........... critical and conceptually thinking are gone. Google and all these shts should stop their strategies....... or the human race will go into decadence very fast.

[@Tate525]

It doesn't matter i can hunt big game in the Supermarket with my constantly shifting attention, all thanks to Tiktok and Instagram Reels.

[@raulkoren6512]

Having constantly shifting attention does help in finding biggest meat in the supermarket.

[@calvinpatterson1257]

Great video, but I'm never gonna watch this channel again because of how many ads there are.

[@DemonPikachu]

Fucking incredible. You have no idea how much I love you right now, Nick. I needed someone to speak some sense after seeing everyone deevolve into lunatics around me, but without knowing why. I hope you have a chance to read my comment whenever, but I despise the state of the internet right now, and more importantly, the society and users on it. This was made 5 years ago, but guess the hell what, it still applies! So cathartic to hear you make sense of all of this after years of neber getting answers from the already damaged users who caused my discomforts. I basically demand an official court order be made in which everyone who is an active internet goer (and who isn't now m.i.right?) to watch this video and take with them this immensely important message about the all too real effects of an all too real internet addiction. We have now found the symptom and cure all at once. I have been using the internet since 1999-2000 at the latest, and the stories I could tell you about how the populus acts now compared to back in the glory days would only be the evidence of what you've talked about. It's like they're all backwards savages or insane asylum lunatics, but it's not really; these pitiable folks only seem that way because they're overloaded in the head and they don't know how to stop themselves. It put things in perspective for me. I believe I might be one of the last generations who already knew deep thinking and the other fundamentals going into the interwebs, and that's because I had outside things in my life; vidya gaems, art, anime, toys, the odd forest to play around, and regularly went to school and learned things the old fashioned way. And I had plenty of time to let it all naturally slot into place, not once getting overloaded. What also helped was that there were only a handful of websites I frequented while online, and they were enough for me. It was all insulated, small and cozier. I never felt like I was missing out on the next new thing, until around 2010-2011. An exact decade, where I saw a noticeable shift in size and quality of things, which confused me but got me curious about what was going to happen next. Cut to 2020, another decade, and the fallout is immesurably negative, and even I almost fell for it in certain places. Again, I've come to have a massive hatred for a lot of it. Most of which are KZbin, Tumblr, Facebook, and other places that are directly about social connection; again, you talked about that. So from your informed video, and my decades of experience, it can be said beyond a shadow of a doubt...that we all desperately - feverishly need to slow the fuck down, and pace ourselves. When you look at something from now on, stop after it ends. So what you saw can just sink in a little more. Surely you must have come across some childhood PSAs where they've said "stop and think about what you've seen", and that applies to so many things, including this. You know that now! It's what our brains actually like to do, instead of overload on the barely processed piles of info day after day with zero breaks. It's gonna get ruined if you keep doing that! I have seen it happening to all of you. Brains are muscles, and the internet is our exercise machine, or weights if you prefer. You wanna work out, you wanna be the buffest around, but you can only use it for so long until your muscles need to relax. And if you don't decide to, it will give out without your say. It'll just do it when it knows it can't take your own indecisiveness anymore. Again, take a break after after every crunch. That should be something we all know by heart, because we all have brains and bodies that get affected by the things we do with them. This is just another one of those situations. And of course, stop worrying so mich about missing out on something. It can't be helped that if you spend any amount of time on something, you will inevitably not be spending time doing something else. It might sound weird, but I learned this from another good video...it's just cause and effect; you decide to do something, and it results in other things not being done, but we already do that anyway. Every single day. It's normal to devote your time to whatever you like, and you're in charge of however long that is! So don't worry so much; you have all the time you need. Hope everyone gets better soon. And to you, Mr. Carr, you have earned my gratitude and respect. You have saved the internet as we know it. The world is in your debt. Congratulations. *hands you a medal*

[@werhatdanamegesagt4158]

Such a shame that in this video there are constant advertisements distracting the video

[@margyb7469]

Ironic

[@harpharpharpharp1971]

How wonderful to finally hear an American say "Internet" and not "Inner-net".

[@neilhelp2043]

5:03 = guy bottom-left corner checking his phone

[@gecko1056]

Thats a guy who's taking notes on his phone, so you're half wrong.

[@astere0s]

lol

[@Tate525]

Probably taking notes

[@yoitmrshockfromcp]

This is a banger

[@gioelelore3704]

Is it ok to watch cartoons or a tv series for no more than 1 hour a day? Is this dangerous for attention and brain? Thanks in advance for your answer.

[@leticiadeassis1827]

Uau! Muito esclarecedor!👏👏👏

[@donmoniquekelson9550]

Thanks to Charlamagne for bringing this subject up on the Breakfast Club this morning.. GREAT RECOMMENDATION

[@terencerucker3244]

As a High School teacher, I couldn't agree more with Carr. Even my wife, who teaches second grade, is noticing the kid's ability to concentrate and think critically, is evaporating.

[@charleshurstreinvention3959]

What the danger is --There is something that will impede your advancement as I told my own subscribers. Addiction to social media. Now social media can be a good thing for advertising your business, YT channel or the like. But having your entire existence based on it is not. First there is the unhealthy aspect of comparing yourself to other profiles which usually aren't nearly as stellar in real life as they are on the front page. Then there is the aspect where your validation is being sought from people you rarely talk to in real life--if ever. Not to mention the constant quest of follows and likes also drops minute amounts of dopamine in your system literally physically making you addicted to social media. Which leads to later anxiety increase and depression. But also--if you are spending all your time on your iPhone then you aren't advancing yourself. Think about how much more you could learn about stock trading if you cut social media 90% down? That's my end point. It should be a very small part of your life not the center of it. Hope that helps someone out there---Charles

[@KLM982]

Partial WT family. Peppard Street, McDowall QLD.

[@NILESH-ms1iy]

Thank u sir

[@BubbasBathWater]

Over 3,000 texts a month as a teen?! That's how I know I don't have friends, I have never even sent at least 1,000 texts a month and I'm 19

[@rockiistarz]

I feel this

[@anandaji4075]

Wow, smashing your smart phones, that's kind of violent after all it's much easier to just watch the smartphone sink to the bottom of the ocean or your own personal toilet bowl. Most of my friends, I have noticed, who are regular users and in constant contact with this digital stimulus are scatterbrains. Texting while driving is now causing more accidents than DWI, not to mention prison cell phone use while walking in public. It's simply pathological to have your mind so consumed in a virtual world to the detriment of your surrounding contacts like returning a smile or talking to a real human in the flesh. take care......

[@lightninglily9118]

+ Ananda Ji its Driving Under the Influence not Driving With Influence

[@richardvargus7443]

Lightning Lily driving while intoxicated is a charge you can get in some states .......

[@pauls1555]

it;'s pathological to not realize that most people both in real life and the internet are retards and not wanting to escape from them is what only idiots don't want to do. Technology is better than retards in real life, modern people are OVERLY retarded and only the overly retarded doesn't see that. They are retarded, technology isn't the culprit, you cannot save a retard with something potentially good like technology. An intelligent person is one who realizes others are retards and don't know shit. Most people are delusionl narcissists who think they know but don't know shit in reality.

[@Trylobyte]

Lost count of how many distractive ads were thrust into my face whilst watching and listening to this talk

[@ValueHaven-y1u]

Compare texts to talking though texting is just distanced communication 3000 texts a month is like nothing compared to how much we talk I don’t get the point of this

[@nathanericschwabenland88888]

big technos is watching us

[@nathanericschwabenland88888]

thank you very much nintendo

[@raulkoren6512]

That's alright they need entertainment too.

[@darthvader5300]

Fortunate that I am a PRINTED BOOK COLLECTOR AND A MICROFILM ARCHIVALISTS AND INFORMATIONREDUNDANCY SAFETY ENFORCER using non-computerized analog technologies of the past 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s, 1930s, 1920s, 1910s, 1900 to 1800 and way back furtther. My dacha contains book shelves from wall to wall, floor to ceiling and along side the stairways and everywhere and I have a microfilm analog archiver-writer systems and recorders. Computers are only used to immediately direct us or me where a particular book or microfilm card is located. I only use computers to check on whether the internet's information content is correct or not. Never buy kindle for that is censorship. Any attempt at deselection or removal from circulation is the most DANGEROUS FORM OF CENSORSHIP FOR IT IS SUBTLE AND UNNOTICEABLE EXCEPT FOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS OF THE COLD WAR LIKE ME AND MY OTHER FELLOW INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS. If a book is out of circulation we just all the titles that are directly and indirectly connected to it and including that of the original title of the original book. The non-stop ASOM microfilm system and non-stop ASOP dot-matrix printer and non-stop ROMAT archival magnetic tape are always activated recording all of my computer activities and downloading everything into microfilms, computer print outs, and in magnetic tapes. A.I is dangerous for it will make us addictively dependent on it and prevent us from developing our naturally and inherently SUPERIOR HUMAN MENTAL FACULTIES which is why speed reading, speed comprehension, speed memorization, speed information assimilation, speed mental knowledge integration in a highly ordered and orderly organized set up manner, and speed mental compartmentalization and speed mental indexing are all necessary so as to avoid confusion with speed two-way inter-communication between bodies of knowledge to create new knowledge and ideas and inventions and innovations and breakthroughs which is known as SPEED SYNERGIZATION OF ASSIMILATED AND ACCUMMULATED KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM is necessary for academic intellectual learning to become FREE-INDEPENDENT SELF-TEACHING AND SELF-LEARNING THINKERS FOR OURSELVES.

[@dragonystic]

I know it's a bit of a sideways leap, but the part about our technology ruining our ability to separate what is trivial from what is meaningful makes me think of this last election cycle. I can't help but wonder if our incessant need for novel stimuli, and our inability to properly categorize it, helped Trump (to some degree) win the election.

[@benjaminbrubaker900]

Adam Misosky Read the book. Internet use literally shrinks your frontal lobes. And guess what internet *raised* generation is about to hit voting age? Has nothing to do with Trump vs some war-mongering, vapid, identity politician...

[@kimberlysalazar8359]

Hell tech. is making us unable to even concentrate, like @bkkb6 up above. If it's not quick then it's not worth our undivided attention. The article from the book that i read was Is Google Making us Stupid. It is very good but it is no quick link lol

[@mohajeramir]

I am craving more ads

[@mohammadhuzaifa7]

Nice

[@elmonixon4392]

Perhaps everyone's comments induced the net to eliminate the adds. I didn't have a single add during the entire video.

[@delflex1]

Anyone else thinks he talks just like Bill Gates?

[@swee2251]

We need information for our survival.

[@zurichsee706]

did you ever watch the video, shallow?

[@Pemulis1]

If youtube thinks they're gonna sell me shit by showing me an ad every three minutes I've got news for 'em - I've got a good book right here, and I'm about to pick it up and say 'fuck youtube'.

[@ejohn951]

ADHD

[@beefyogurt]

i have a passionate hatred for advertisement. its a cancer of the 21st century

[@smspirate]

I'm a 35 year veteran of IT and was a key worker in the initial legacy consolidations that built the pathways for html and a browser enabled, web. My interests today include semantic and neural web developments. My Ph.D. studies are about his topic, although I argue vehemently about his approach. While the biology is lovely, Carr's interpretation, and indeed, his use of the word, "compulsion" reveals the extreme hole in his entire body of work. "Nothing stays there for very long," is false - because he fails to accommodate or appreciate fully "it only happens when we're attentive." In studies of attention disorders, it's very clear that when connected to the MEANING of the activity and particularly the output or product, non-attentive disordered people focus fully, and in fact, argue and resist switching tasks. People with limbic system indications, which are more and more relevant, have trouble switching gears, but what the prevalent commentary fails to include, as does, Mr. Carr, is that the reward is key. This generation is "wired." They are the first product of at least 2 generations of exposure to an information and electronic web that conveys meaning. Meaning. Meaning of the people involved. They're not compulsively becoming slaves to technology. They're getting the reward of communicating in an effective way. They don't shun gathering, on the contrary! They are just a lot more discerning about the reasons and the occasions to congregate - and indeed, often the long distance relationships online preclude all but very special visits in person and live. This is all a great base for some preliminary premises on the technology only responses involved here, but they fall very very very short of being of any real relevant value on a ship has long since departed.

[@jsimmons12]

All that education you have and no ability to write in paragraphs...

[@smspirate]

twelve words and you said absolutely nothing of use or value. You could have just posted a picture of your ego and been done with it.

[@jsimmons12]

I really wanted to read what you originally wrote, but the readability was so poor. I'm not saying your content was poor; it's probably very interesting and relevant. But you made it way too much work to trudge through. I think it's fair to question how someone with a Ph.d--which requires a thesis--would decide not to break up their own writing in order to make it clearer and more digestible. Or, perhaps, the internet has ruined my brain, rendering it incapable of retaining thought long enough to fully comprehend it. A picture of my ego would be interesting, though.

[@smspirate]

If you would like to pay me for formal academic comment, I'd be happy to tell you how to do so. As it is, in an informal electronic dialog, the burden of understanding through grammar evaporated with the first emoji.

[@jsimmons12]

Hahaha that comment wins

[@animegame100]

I think it's like reading with a little fun on the side not like movies or cartoons, those are bad, more to entirely right brain driven!! less right brain is involved with fun like this.

[@animegame100]

some people are trying to connect those people would use teleportation to everywhere if they could. i need a new damn keyboard, sorry. behind a computer or phone is safer. thus as genesis goes, in the future we need to know it all. time goes adam to eve. not eve to adam, or staying adam. you will understand...

[@stephenlupoli]

Read Iain McGilchrist .

[@JohnCahillChapel]

Two cameras works better. Really.

[@eaglesnake4921]

All the antagonist elements in my mind are actively distracting me when I watch Nicholas Carr speak.

[@jairomelo1797]

We actually were less stupid?

[@BrianSmith-vl7xu]

The internet has a lot of positives too.

[@luddned7351]

Brian Smith not really

[@zurichsee706]

You didn't ever watch the video because he speaks about the POSITIVES as well........ and the one big negative. Like he said, he is not against the internet. You are just a shallow more that just reads the title and comments and have lost the ability to think deeply. RIP.

[@BrianSmith-vl7xu]

@@zurichsee706 its alright john I wont take that as a personal insult.

[@samglinzia9026]

And pedos lol

[@guciochris5297]

yet the video has 6 adds in 18 min, F... u google, youtube, and the channel host................

[@tonyvillani4614]

The Internet has done More Damage to Humanity than both the first world war ,- and the second world war combined .

[@D-J-Q]

10:44 and I thought that dude has a weird hair.

[@nickc6158]

DJQ 15 that's the lady behind him

[@zurichsee706]

is that all you got from the video? wtf.

[@TheFinnmacool]

Anyone who has any trouble with creativity at any point in your life, just pop some shrooms. Instant cure. Well about 40 minutes!!

[@ZacksJerryRig]

If you read his book, you'll see that drugs also damage the ability to form the 'long term connections' he talked about in this video.

[@rodon.]

This is Big Deal Today and this VIDEO 👌 don't have 1000 likes..

[@DJWOWW100]

what the heck did i come here to watch ads or the actual video? thumbs down

[@KLM982]

Your stalking tools lack balls to get in to my striking range.

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

Either I'm the exception or he is just horribly wrong. I do no stay on a web page for 10 seconds, barely enough time to even read a paragraph. If you are struggling to stay on there, it just means the subject never interested you enough. Simple as that. the internet allow you to have easy access to so many things. It means more competition for whatever you are doing. Also I rarely check my phone, I use it roe for music when going outside than any other purpose. Another explanation for why we use smartphones more because it is a multi-purpose device. It can do everything older technology can. As for 'ruining our cognitive function' I learned majority of my history from the internet. I would of never learned what I know from the local library. Good luck with that. I can write long essays on history thanks to the internet.

[@KLM982]

Lacks balls to walk down his driveway alone. 32 Peppard Street, McDowall in Queensland.