I have a diagnosis of ME by a neurologist – I can’t ‘do’ Twitter or chatrooms – they make me feel much more feverish and malaisey (those are technical terms BTW) than, say, reading your blog or dealing with emails.

I think it is that they are more ‘bitty’ and, thus, take more concentration? Or that you have to concentrate in a different way?

I’m aware of the concerns of the present: the shallowness, the generational increase in “egoism,” and such. But, it does us no good to talk about it as if it were some great decline from whatever arbitrary point someone wants to start.

Put these concerns, questions, and evidence into historical context:
Is English grammar really in decline and bringing down society with it? Or is it a typical change in language spurred on by the great increase in non-native English speakers worldwide?
Is people’s knowledge becoming more superficial? Or are they becoming increasingly specialized with some knowledge while increasing the amount of superficial general knowledge they have (a little of everything and everything of a little)?
Are kids today more shallow in their communication? Or are there communications with acquaintances shallow but in PRIVATE conversations with good friends it remains deep?

Just because someone ends their diatribe, decrees, or blatant condemnation with a question (or puts it in the middle of a question sandwich), doesn’t mean that they were “simply questioning,” you know?

It’s one thing to conclude a few people in real life don’t care whether you live or die, but to say ‘Hi!’ to the world and get no response might have the potential to be far more distressing.

“I just wish people would stop constantly stating how much worse everything is as if everything was great before. For one, it’s probably not worse and it would be hard to prove that it is.”

and then

“Don’t ask questions – questions are for Luddites!”
(from http://dark-mountain.net/uncategorized/the-barcode-moment-part-2/ )

and wondered: can we agree that statements of certainty are problematic, but so is closing down questioning?

Thanks for your response Tom, and thanks for a great book. I hope you don’t mind if I share some of my daughters thoughts with you on the brain and computer, what I find interesting is that she refers to the brain as a motherboard.
They say the younger generation are born into technology and perhaps it is their opinions on the subject that matters. I apologize if this is the wrong place for such a post. Also note my daughter is a bit of a dyslexic typist, so edited it for her.

The Human Being Animal
Sabrinas thoughts
Aged 14

1. Preface
2. The Brain
3. The mind
4. Tool Maker
5. Programs of Men
6. In the now
7. Focus( Focus Trinity Focus and self talk)
8. Will power( I will, I mean I do)
9. The World Life WEB.
10. Virus

Preface
In the last few years, this book has been brewing in my brain, stiring itself into being, and the time has come to put fingers to keyboard, and give life to the book. This book is for the lay-man, of which I am one. When it comes to matters of the human machine and the sum of its part, the scientific community make it ever so difficult for the ordinary to understand, be this on purpose on they have a vantage veiw of the world better then us.

In this book I aim to explain the simple workings of the human machine, I will use alot of computer jargon to explains the parts of the machine, but in no means am I just saying the human machine is like the computer machine, I simply use the computer terminology, because the computer is one of our most advanced machines and many people familiar with its jargon.

Chapter 1

The Human Machine
Our body, minds, hearts and souls, function together to create an organic machine, in this book called the human machine. Given that we have to live within the machine for the period of our lifes , it is important for one to know how to take care of the machine, and in terms of having a brilliant life, how to use the machine. We are all familiar with machines, they are our tools, but while some machines are easier to understand then others, most people never pay attention to their God given machine(The human body).

Chapture 2
The Brain( MotherBoard)

The Brain is the motherboard of the Human Machine, and to this motherboard all the componants of the human machine are connected. The Brain is very delicate and housed within a protective bone covering called the skull.

Chapter 3
The mind(CPU)

The mind is the central processing unit of the brain and is not a physical component of the brain but virtual construct, a place where the brain can carry out logic, reason, planning, thinking, feeling.

The Mind is the holding area for information the brains recieves. WHen the brain recieves input from the senses it sends the input from the senses into Mind. The mind is made up of two parts, the brain mind and the iMind. When the Brain recieves input from a perepheral device like the eye, the brain first put the information in the Brain mind and the brain mind then checks with memory what it should do with the information, once the information is processed the brain mind sends a message back to the part of the brain(motherboard) instructing how it should respond to the information.

The brain then creates a program of the information it recieves from the brain mind for use the next time such input is recieved. The more the program is used or requested by the brain mind, the brain then adds the program to most recently used list.

The iMind is responsible for long term planning, while the brain mind is responsible for things that require a flight or fight response.

Kids find it interesting simply because there is very less interesting stuff out there in real “social” life communication. Kids wants something fascinating so that they can key their mind busy; this is why they are always on the virtual world.

Cheers
Happy browsing!

I just wish people would stop constantly stating how much worse everything is as if everything was great before. For one, it’s probably not worse and it would be hard to prove that it is. However, it would make sense that our communicative abilities with a new technology would be hindered until we figure out how to use it, live with it, and communicate well with it.

I certainly wouldn’t want to exclude the possibility that the internet (and modernity generally?) is proiritising shallowness of some kinds. For the BBC article i was just concerned to undermine a sort of neuroessentialism that is often put into service to pander to techno-panic.

But, yes, there has to be a real space to discuss the reality of the changes (to ourselves, our minds and to culture) generally of the internet.

Maybe we should have a reading group where we consider The Shallows, SBJ’s “Everything Bad is Good for you” and Turkle’s “Alone Together”.

The last of which I hated with a passion, by the way http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/?p=1449

The tell me the beauty of internet social skills is that they can share so much more information with their peers. So I am thinking if the internet is affecting our brains, it is making us less real life socially skilled, but our brains are changing in the amount information it recieves.