The Internet (Update: Advances Attention Deficit Disorder)

The Internet May Not Be Doing Our Brains Much Good [Video]

Brian Proffitt 

Working on the Internet every day, you start to have certain suspicions about how it affects the way you think and process information. Turns out, there's something to that.

Readers of Nicholas Carr's 2010 book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains will certainly confirm this. While the Internet is a fantastic tool to conduct business and communicate with friends and colleagues, the constant distractions can and do have an interruptive effect on how we think and learn.

The animation team at Epipheo Studios recently interviewed Carr and put together a video on the topics expressed in The Shallows. It is presented to you here, somewhat ironically, as one of those distractions that the Internet can present you during the course of the day.

Pick a time to watch it on your own schedule, and then think about ways in which you can start unplugging a bit more in your busy online life. You may not buy into this, but we can share one thing with you: every writer who has written for our Pause series of stories has reported a reduction of stress or some other calming effect.

Taking time for yourself to just think and be is not only relaxing, it may help avoid the dinosaurs and sharks in your life.