Is the internet truly an information superhighway, or is it more like a controlled maze? How does the commodification of information affect our ability to learn and retain knowledge?
In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr writes that the digital age has transformed how we access and consume information. Search engines and social media platforms have become gatekeepers, shaping our online experiences. They prioritize speed and quantity over depth and quality, treating information as a commodity to be packaged and sold.
Keep reading to learn how, according to Carr, this shift impacts our learning and the future of knowledge sharing.
The Commodification of Information
The internet is often described as an “information superhighway,” but it’s the people and businesses building the roads who determine where that superhighway goes. Search engines, while seemingly useful tools for rapid access to information, also create an information bottleneck by controlling both the content and the speed at which we read. They encourage fast-paced information consumption while breaking knowledge down into chunks without context, promoting only the most popular viewpoints. This approach effectively treats information as a commodity, something to be packaged and sold rather than deeply understood.
Carr states that the control search engines have over information translates into power for the companies who build them, and they use this power to impact the public’s access to knowledge. These companies capitalize on the links users click on, so the design strategy behind search engine algorithms encourages rapid and repeated clicking that takes the reader from one page to another as fast as possible. This strategy further reinforces the concept of information as a commodity, where quantity and speed of consumption are prioritized over quality and depth. While on the surface this seems to provide more information, the downside is that this tactic undermines your ability to focus on information and retain it—an issue that’s irrelevant to the business models of search engine creators, who profit from the commodification of information.
| How the Information Business Works Carr doesn’t go into detail about the financial side of the online search industry. Basically, search engines make money through advertising. Businesses pay to appear at the top of search results, often running pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in which they pay the search engine every time someone clicks on their promoted link. Display ads, which search engines target based on your user data and search history, also generate income.. Though some search engines have diversified their income streams through tech expansions and corporate mergers, advertising remains their key revenue source. Since appearing near the top of a list of search results is so vital to online information providers, media outlets specifically design their content to appeal to search engine algorithms, rather than the human readers they’re trying to lure to their sites. This process, search engine optimization (SEO), works by targeting popular keywords, creating content to match current search trends, and embedding links to related websites. As search engines continue to evolve, companies using SEO techniques must now keep up with trends like voice search optimization and AI integration. The trouble with SEO practices is that they leave little room for the aspects of reading and learning that Carr prizes most—namely depth and quality of writing. Instead of promoting authentic, valuable content, SEO tactics often prioritize commercial interests, effectively burying high-quality information beneath high-ranked yet unhelpful search results. Furthermore, the evolution of SEO—from blatant manipulation of search algorithms to AI-driven content creation—puts the survival of quality content at risk. |
In addition to weakening readers’ focus and retention, the internet is also eroding meaning, warns Carr. The assumption underlying online content’s presentation is that all information can and should be dissolved into its constituent parts. Digitization turns books into databases where users can find specific ideas without engaging the whole text, thereby ignoring complexity and nuance. To an online information business, after all, books are only valuable as collections of data to mine. Additionally, search engines skew visibility toward popular viewpoints, making it hard for alternative perspectives to be seen or heard. Meanwhile, social media further contributes to breaking information into small, easily digestible nuggets.
(Shortform note: A further concern around reducing books to data that wasn’t an issue at the time of Carr’s writing is the unauthorized use of human-written content to train AI models. In addition to authors’ and publishers’ concerns that such use of their writing is copyright infringement, the use of AI to create online content derived from a database of human writing could devalue any new human-created work, resulting in less content being written from diverse perspectives and in diverse styles. Furthermore, the lack of quality control that persists in much AI-generated content leads to misinformation and the amplification of biases that exist in a model’s training data.)
