The Shallows Essay

English B1A

In a 500-word typed, MLA formatted essay, explain the roles of our pre-digital heritage in Carr’s argument in The Shallows.

Though Carr’s book focuses on how we are affected by digital technologies, the internet in particular, most chapters include some discussion of people, objects, technologies, events, and/or ideas that originated before the advent of digital technology, in some cases several centuries or even millennia before (see his examples of written language/the alphabet, the printing press, the map, the clock, etc.).

Write an essay that explains the role that this pre-digital heritage plays in helping Carr advance his arguments about our digital era. Why does he include these examples? What to they support or prove? Explain.