Nicholas Carr on How Technologies of Communication Tear Us Apart

Intelligence Squared

Arts, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

‘We live today in a perpetual superbloom – not of flowers but of messages’ –- Nicholas Carr In this episode we explore the hidden costs of constant connection with American journalist and writer Nicholas Carr. Best known for his New York Times bestselling book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Carr discusses his latest book Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart. In conversation with writer and researcher Adam McCauley, Carr shows us how platforms such as Facebook and X which promised to democratise information and foster greater understanding have instead fueled tribalism, misinformation, and social fragmentation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:36.6	management to strategic planning and more,
0:39.7	Asana works for you. Try for free today at asana.com. Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great
0:47.8	finds meet. I'm producer Leila Ishmael. In this episode, we dive deep into the hidden
0:53.6	costs of digital connection with
0:55.4	American journalist and writer Nicholas Carr. Carr is best known for his groundbreaking 2008 essay
1:02.3	is Google Making Us Stupid, which warned us about the effects of the internet on our cognition,
1:07.4	and laid the foundations for his New York Times best-selling book, The Shallows,
1:11.9	What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.
1:14.5	Carr is back with a new book titled Superbloom, How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart.
1:20.6	Joining him in conversation to discuss it is writer and researcher Adam McCauley.
1:25.5	Listen on to hear how the very technologies that promise to bring
1:28.6	us closer together are actually driving us further apart. Welcome to Intelligence Squared. I'm
1:35.9	your host, Adam McCauley. I'm so pleased to welcome Nicholas to Intelligence Squared.
1:40.2	Thanks very much, Adam. So you broke into the public consciousness. I would argue almost too early with the shallows back in 2011.
1:48.0	That book offered a prescient warning about the age of the Internet and what it would mean for our lives.
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