Does the internet make you dumber?

Does the internet make you dumber?
(The cognitive effects are measurable: We're turning into shallow thinkers)
Nicolas Carr, The Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2010, page W1

This article offers a  serious critique to the internet. The author argues that too much interactive content may hamper the cognitive abilities that used to be nurtured by the previous generation of information technology tools - the book.

This critique is a blow to - or at least a strong injunction to relativate - widespread perceptions of the internet as a powerful lever of cognition and communication, such as Timothy Leary's advocacy of the cyberculture, or Tim Berners Lee's urge to use more internet.

Worth a read for all those interested in the accelerating evolution of the human cognitive capabilities and their relations to the changing use of information and communication technologies.