chapter summaries

Prologue: The Watchdog and the Thief

McLuhan, 1964 prophesied that society would suffer from a loss of ability to engage in “linear thinking” because of the electric media (radio, telephones, and TV) that were proliferating at that time - what he did not foresee was the advent of the internet, which exponentially expanded the effect he predicted

the internet massively expanded our access to information, good and bad - democratization of culture vs dumbing down of culture

today, when we criticize the internet, we only focus on the content - frivolous, stupid, misinformative, violent, crass etc. and we think can be immune to it

but the medium is just as important, and a bigger danger, because it has a bigger influence on how we think - the medium is the message, and every new medium changes us

Chapter 1: Hal and Me

media doesn’t just supply the subjects of thought, it shapes the process of thought

the internet doesn’t just influence our opinions and concepts, it alters patterns of perception entirely, affects our nervous system

it is as much our servant as our master

our minds are switching from linear thought (humanity’s primary mental methodology since Guttenberg’s printing press, which means that it has driven every societal development from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution) to scanning and skimming

Chapter 2: The Vital Paths

neurons want to receive input, when they stop getting their usual input, they respond to the next best thing, we become neurologically what we think - neuroplasticity:

• neural pathways that are used more often reproduce, making those paths easier to take, therefore the brain takes them more, strenghtning them, snowball effect
• in turn, neural pathways that are less used eventually disappear, get written over

paradox of neuroplastivity - despite all the flexibility it grants us, it can also lock us into “rigid behaviours” - plastic ≠ elastic, it can stretch somewhat, but it can’t always go back to it’s original shape (path of least resistance), and not all changes are positive, we can make ourselves dumber

it can even be a cause of pathology, the mind can make itself sicker when we concentrate too much on symptoms

meaning, the more we use the web, the more we train our brain to be distracted, to process information very quickly and efficiently but without sustained attention or any search for deeper meaning