A recent blog article on the Harvard Business Review website discusses whether the Internet (and all that comes with it—Google, smart phones, etc.) is causing us to have shorter attention spans. The article addresses the premise behind author Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. (I wrote about the book and this topic in another post.) This is what the article’ s author has to say:

In complete scientific ignorance, I reject the idea that the Internet has fundamentally and forever impeded our ability to concentrate. We are simply adapting to the media of the moment. No, the desktop web is not made for deep immersion in content. It’s distant and impersonal. But as technologies continue to evolve, so will we…We are heading towards a deeper immersion in ideas — but of a very different kind that we experienced in the pre-Web days.

What do you think? Is our attention span forever shortened due to the effects of the Internet? Or will we adapt and change and experience “deeper immersion”?

“No, Google Is Not Making You Stupid” – Harvard Business Review