Apparently, Nick Carr hasn't noticed that basic fact lookup is way, way easier now (hello, Wikipedia) than it was twenty years ago:

another question needs to be asked: does the individualism promoted by the Net's unique mode of information dispersal deepen and expand the self or leave it shallower and narrower? We've been online for twenty years. What have we accomplished, in artistic, literary, cultural terms?

Before the net, doing any kind of basic research was a pain in the neck. Getting recommendations for books you might like depended on the amount of like-minded reading your friends did. Getting a traffic report or weather report meant turning on the TV or radio and waiting for them to get around to that segment.

Now? It's all available in seconds if you care to look - both at home and on the go (iPhone, etc). For a guy who follows technology, he sure misses a lot...

Technorati Tags: net, stupidity