The superficial | Nicolas Carr

During one day, the majority of us who have a connection to the network spend at least two hours—or much more at times—on the internet, and during this time we tend to repeat the same or similar actions over and over again, usually at a high speed, often in response to signals sent by a screen or a speaker. Some of these actions are physical. We press keys on our personal computer keyboard. We drag the mouse, click its right and left buttons, and turn the scroll wheel attached to it. We swipe our fingers on the touchpad. We use our thumbs to type using the physical or virtual keyboard on BlackBerry devices or mobile phones. We turn iPhones, iPods, and iPads to switch between "landscape" and "portrait" modes while playing with icons on sensitive touch screens. And while performing these actions, the internet sends a steady stream of information to our visual cortex, sensory cortex, and auditory cortex. There are sensations coming through our hands and fingers as we click, swipe, type, and touch. And there are many auditory signals sent by our ears, such as the alert tone announcing a new email or instant message, and the various ringtones used by our mobile phones to notify us of different events. Of course, there are countless visual signals flashing on our screens as we navigate the electronic world: not only the ever-changing texts and images, but also the hyperlinks highlighted with underlines or different colors, the mouse pointers in various shapes depending on their functions, the bolded email addresses, the virtual buttons flashing to prompt us to click, icons, and other screen elements begging to be dragged or placed somewhere, the forms that need to be filled out, pop-up ads, windows that must be read or ignored. The network engages all our senses—except for the senses of smell and taste so far—and does so simultaneously.