Long form arguments are over-rated
Posted on June 23rd, 2008
Stowe Boyd, responding to Nick Carr’s provocation in The Atlantic that argues that “Google is making us stupid,” anticipates some of a piece I’ve been thinking about writing for a few months: The sort of long-form argument that some say the Web is killing is vastly over-rated. It’s actually difficult to find books that are long arguments (not multiple illustrations of one point, but an argument that develops over the course of multiple chapters) that don’t go off the rails relatively quickly. And, yes, I include Immanuel Kant in this. Darwin’s Descent of Man is an exception.
I meant to get around to writing about this. I still do.
Very much agree with this point. Nietzsche turned me on to it originally…
Comes from the ‘people are rational’ fallacy/belief.
Reminds me of Diamond’s “Guns, Germs & Steel”, a Pulitzer prize winner that went “off the rails” after the initial few chapters, IMO.
It is funny that Carr doesn’t shed a single drop of irony in complaining about how people don’t read long articles… in a long article in The Atlantic.
I’ve read his piece – both online and (recently, while waiting for 2 hrs at the airport) in the paper version – and while it is a nice piece the problem is that the counter argument, or counter examples, seem to be just as possible and probable.
On balance, I think being able to look things up is a net positive. And while Google is the current distraction, I suspect that human beings have *always* had distractions. There is a certain evolutionary benefit to being able to drop what you’re doing when something more interesting (or dangerous!) pops up, isn’t there?
…r
As an ex-academic who was used to long (and even leisurely), above all uninterrupted disquisitions on philosophy & art & theory, but who, in becoming a mother, had to learn to that if she ever wanted to get *anything* done again (like, not eat cereal for dinner and instead enjoy a cooked meal — we’re talking basic stuff here!), she had better learn to multi-task, I found myself deeply resenting Carr’s article. (Like, puerilely resenting, as in thinking, “I bet HE has a *wife* at home!”…)
Instead of worrying that the internet/ google is making us stupid, I prefer to think of the internet as our brand new baby. And, yep, it’s interrupting and distracting us (and making us “stupid” by Father Carr’s standards), but guess what? We are learning so much, especially when we pay attention to how we’re growing in tandem.