Commanding Our Attention

               In Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows, he makes a statement In Chapter 7 that says “The Net commands our attention with far greater insistency than our television or radio or morning newspaper ever did” (117). I agree with this statement for many reasons.

                Today most people have internet on both their computers at home and also on their smart phones, so that the internet can be with them anywhere they go. The internet involves a lot of two-way interaction, meaning it involves two people writing to each other back and forth. This is usually through e-mail, instant messaging, text messages, and social networking sites. It seems that almost every time we check the Net on our computer or on our phones, we have something new to respond to, and we feel the need to respond in a short amount of time. This commands a lot of our and others’ attention. A TV, radio, or newspaper, does not involve two-way communication. We do not communicate with the TV or a radio, and a newspaper is physical and can’t be changed or spoken to. So we don’t really feel pulled in by these objects. We get what we need out of it and move on. We can easily shut it down or off, unlike the internet which is always self-updating.  Yes we can decide to shut off our phones or computers, but we’ll know that we most likely have for example, a Facebook post or a new e-mail. Also as Carr mentions in the chapter, “our social standing is, in one way or another, always in play, always at risk. The resulting self-consciousness - even at times, fear - magnifies the intensity of our involvement with the medium” (118). So basically for example, we are afraid that we might not look popular enough on Facebook, so we go and make statuses, upload photos, or comment on our friend’s profiles. Then after we do that, people will comment back and we feel the need to keep up with these notifications to show that we are current with the social media of the times. As the psychotherapist Michael Hausauer said, teens are afraid to “stop sending messages” or updating their profiles because “they risk becoming invisible” (Carr 118).

                Also, the Net combines all three of the things mentioned, which are television, radio, and newspaper, plus other things, so that we can multitask online. Since the net combines all these things, we spend more time on it and it commands much more attention than just one of those things alone. The internet also puts into play something that cannot be done with regular physical newspapers or normal car radios. We can comment and share videos from TV, radio stations, and news. The ability to do this involves a command of more of our attention once again, since people will comment back and etc. The Internet is a very powerful technology and medium since it commands much and most of our attention these days… much more than past technologies like radios or televisions.

-Jill Zalewski