To remain vital, culture must be renewed in the minds of the members of every generation. Outsource memory, and culture withers.

Nicholas Carr
About This Quote

The idea that culture must be “renewed in the minds of the members of every generation” is more than an expression of faith in the ability of young people to care for their own future. It is, in fact, a bit of idealism about what culture means to the people who create it. It is also an expression of faith that new ideas can help us learn from our mistakes. The truth is that we often forget what we learn.

We get so consumed by our work and our relationships that we become less able to remember what we know. This kind of forgetting is not an accident. Instead, it has its roots in the very different way that people learn in recent years.

We are surrounded by information, but it’s not always easy to find things out for ourselves. Textbooks are helpful, but they are not enough. Access to more information on the Internet changes all this, but it still takes time to go through everything on offer and make sense of what you find there.

Source: The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains

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