Supply Chain

The Web and Our Minds: Overconnected and Shallow?

March 26, 2011

For those of us who are tired of mindless PowerPoint presentations; interruptions by iPhone and Blackberry addicts; and, all the blather on the Web, we might find ourselves wishing for the saner, simpler days of the past.

Two excellent books I recently finished speak to the impact a lot of it negative- that all this new technology has on our brains and the ability to execute good decisions.

Nicholas Carr's The Shallows thoughtfully challenges much of the conventional wisdom espoused by "Net Enthusiasts". Using strong empirical studies and illustrating how the Internet alters the neuro-plasticity of our brains, Carr points out that,

"The computer screen bulldozes our doubts with its bounties and conveniences. It is so much our servant that is would be churlish to notice that it is also our master."

He goes on to discuss how more spent time on the Web makes us less able to focus for long, uninterrupted periods of time- changing the way our brain actually works.

William Davidow's Overconnected looks at "what happens to a system when connectivity increases dramatically both inside and outside of it, and parts, if not the whole, are able to adjust." He interestingly suggests how the 2008 financial crisis was largely a result of "overconnectivity".

Both Carr and Davidow make strong cases that we might want to re-consider the role that technology and the Web play in our personal and public lives. Check em out

About the Author

Andrew R. Thomas Blog | Associate Professor of Marketing and International Business

Andrew R. Thomas, Ph.D., is associate professor of marketing and international business at the University of Akron; and, a member of the core faculty at the International School of Management in Paris, France.

He is a bestselling business author/editor, whose 23 books include, most recently, American Shale Energy and the Global Economy: Business and Geopolitical Implications of the Fracking Revolution, The Customer Trap: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake in Business, Global Supply Chain Security, The Final Journey of the Saturn V, and Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service and Safety.

His book The Distribution Trap was awarded the Berry-American Marketing Association Prize for the Best Marketing Book of 2010. Another work, Direct Marketing in Action, was a finalist for the same award in 2008.

Andrew is founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Security and a regularly featured analyst for media outlets around the world.

He has traveled to and conducted business in 120 countries on all seven continents.