Robert Helle, The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, Chapter 5 summary

This chapter is centered around one key point. Being that the internet has an almost limitless capability. Alan Turing was the inventor of the enigma machine and had believed this fact, and he was right. only a few decades after his death it became the “Universal Medium”. The world wide web began in the early 1960’s and every year after it’s creation doubled it’s traffic. First the web started taking over sound mediums. from radios and phonographs to streaming audio. Shortly after, it started also taking over  the video industry  via streaming services.  Then it’s capability exploded with the exponential factor of data sharing through social media.  according to this chapter, by 2009 an average American was spending 12 hours a week on the internet. double the average in 2005. The print medium is now at the lowest point of usage in it’s existence, yet still will probably never be obsolete. Old mediums stays relevant for a long time or indefinitely but usually fall out of  their economical and cultural force. Old mediums when converted into the net are not just conversions. They are their own entity in which the net tries to replicate. It makes them more accessible by making it fragmented and connected in other ways only the net can. The data we see is only going to continue to be accessible with the common use of cell phones.  The powerful mobile computers in our pockets is proof everyone carries, of the exponential nature of technology.

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