Our assignment this week was to read “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr. During my reading, there was one part of the novel that stuck out to me the most. At the end of the first chapter, Carr is discussing that he feels as though the internet has turned his brain into ” something like a high-speed processing machine, a human HAL.”(16)  In my opinion that does not sound too bad, but Carr doesn’t feel the same saying that “I missed my old brain.”(16) Maybe the fact that my entire life I have been accustomed to using the internet is the reason why I have trouble understanding his point of view. It may also be why I disagree with another passage he has in chapter six when he states that “A personal letter written in, say, the nineteenth century bears little resemblance to a personal e-mail or text message written today. Our indulgence in the pleasures of informality and immediacy has led to a narrowing of expressiveness and a loss of eloquence.” (108) Again our difference is most likely derived from the generation in which we are born, but I would argue that the lack of eloquence in messages is much less relevant when you are able to send a multitude at any very instant. In the nineteenth century letters were less common and would take a while to get from one person to another meaning you had to convey as much as possible in one small letter; however, I can at anytime pick up my phone and send a message about anything with any amount of “eloquence” that is necessary. It is possible for me to send a very long and meaningful text to someone of importance, but at the same time I can also text them while they are at the store just to tell them to pick up milk. By this i mean to argue that texts can still have as much eloquence while still being extremely more efficient, and that those two ideas are not mutually exclusive as Carr might say they are.