once you see that isaac watts and argues an 18th century can give us context for the arguments made by people like nicholas carr in 2010. nicholas carr arguing in the shadow arguing about what the internet has done to her ability to pay attention or distractibility and undistracted linear minds is pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants to take in and dole out information in an overlapping bursts. you can see the extent to which that concern is a very ancient one. the idea that somehow our new tech melodies are fundamentally changing us becomes less plausible when we see the extent to which these concerns we have been having these concerns for a very long time now. the other thing i've hope you've seen and what i've shown you already is but we never really had a calm undistracted linear mind. that's not the way the human mind works. the idea that we had this. lapsed state in which we sort of calmly said and focused on things for as long as we wanted that kind of the myth did we never really had a mind like that so i want you to kind of thing about this knowledge is to go forward.

this is a quote from 1741, isaac watts wrote a book called the improvement of the mind and one of the things he writes about is the extent to which if you put yourself continuously in the company of distraction, it makes you a more distractible person. what he's arguing is about people going to coffee shops. you might know and a 16th and 17th centuries coffee shops were swarmed into england and europe more generally and these were places of heightened activity. they were buzzing with people talking, newspapers, meeting, all kinds of stuff like that. watts was saying don't go to those places if you're trying to study because all of the things that strike your eyes and your ear have a tendency to steal the mind away from steady pursuit of any subject. that's the normal distractions we all experience when he argues is something different and thereby your soul gets into a habit of trifling and wandering. in other words, if you spend a lot of time in the company of her distractions you become a more distracted person. now once you see that isaac watts has been arguing this in the 18th cent

this is a quote from 1741, isaac watts wrote book called the improvement of the mind write pout the extent to which if you put yourself continuously in the company of distraction, it makes you a more distractable person. so what he is arguing here is pout people going to coffee shops. might not have known in the 16th and 17th century coffee shops swarmed into england and europe more generally, places of kind of heightened activity, buzzing with people talking, newspapers, meetings, stuff like that. and he is saying don't go to to the place is if you're trying to study because all the things that strike you eye and your ear have a tendency to steal the mind from a steady pursuit of any subject so that's the normal distractions but he argues and thereby your sole gets into a habit of trifling and wandering so if you spend a lot of time in the company our your distracts you back more distracted person. once you see that ice cack watt has been arguing this in the 18th century, it can give us a little context for the argue. ed made by people like nicholas carr in 2010. you see he argues in the