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So you are reading an article online when you get an instant message

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with a link to a funny photo, which of course you have to share.

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And now you are reading your Facebook News Wall,

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which sends you to a video of a panda bear attacking a kid.

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And now you are reading Wikipedia to learn everything you can

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about the violent behavior of panda bears.

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And this is what 3 minutes on the internet can be like.

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We live like this all the time, and it has to have some kind of effect on us.

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The net is making us more superficial as thinkers.

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That is Nicholas Carr.

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He is the author of, "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains."

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To understand this whole thing better, we need to go way back in time,

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to say, like, the prehistoric age.

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You wanted to know everything going on around you

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because the more you knew about your surroundings,

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the less likely you were to get attacked by a predator.

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And there's even evidence that our brains release some dopamine

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- a pleasure inducing neurotransmitter chemical

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- to reward us for seeking out and finding new information.

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So, getting distracted felt good and helped us stay alive.

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But the problem is that nowadays, predators aren't much of an issue,

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but we still have the same brains.

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And also, there's the internet, which is...

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It's an incredibly information-rich environment that the net creates for us.

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And that's why we use it so much.

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I mean, sounds, pictures, words, texts.

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And what this tends to do is promote a sort of compulsive behavior

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in which we are constantly checking your smart phone,

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constantly glancing at our email inbox.

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We're kind of living in this perpetual state of distraction and interruption.

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Which is dangerous because...

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That mode of thinking crowds out the more contemplative calmer modes of thinking.

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And that focused, calm thinking is actually how we learn.

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It's a process called memory consolidation.

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And that means the transfer of information from our short term working memory,

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to our long term memory.

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And it's through moving information from your working memory

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to your long term memory that you create connections

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between that information and everything else you know.

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So you've got this awesome, life-changing piece of information

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in your short term memory,

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but then you hear that email ding, and, there it goes.

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That email takes its place, and you never get a chance to learn anything,

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all because of one distraction.

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So attention is the key.

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And if we lose control of our attention, or are constantly dividing our attention,

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then we don't really enjoy that consolidation process.

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But I can hear it now, someone is out there saying,

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"Uh, what does learning matter

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if all of the information in the world is just a Google search away?"

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Well...

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That is is kind of short-changing our intellects.

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If that's the way you're using your mind,

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just kind of searching very quickly and finding information

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and then forgetting it very quickly,

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you're never building knowledge.

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You're simply, you're, you're kind of thinking like a computer.

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Which means that our very humanity is at stake.

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And it would be a shame if we all got assimilated,

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because, well, humanity is pretty neat.

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I really believe that if you look at the great monuments of culture,

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they come from people who are able to pay attention, who control their mind.

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That's what allows us to think in the highest terms

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and think conceptually, think critically, think in some very creative ways.

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And it's this kind of thinking that's at risk:

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being eroded, one cute cat video at a time.

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Don't get us wrong:

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The internet is good for lots of things, and it should be celebrated.

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But the best thing we can do for our minds is to find some time every day

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to unplug, calm down, and focus on one thing at a time.

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Your email and those cats will be here when you get back.