But Carr does come around to an essential question: Does what we lose outweigh the new insights or thinking that we gain? Would anyone argue that whatever society lost with the introduction of the printing press was far exceeded by the progress it enabled in areas like medicine and science?
Carr cops to being a bit of a worrywart about new technologies. I tend to lean toward the optimistic side.
The changes we're experiencing through our use of technology can feel disorienting at times. But if we're lucky, they'll lead us into a new era of thinking and progress in the same way Gutenberg's press did all those years ago.