Author Nicolas Carr poses the question in his new book,
The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains: What kind of brain is the Web giving us?
That question will no doubt be the subject of a great deal of research in the years ahead. Already, though, there is much we know or can surmise—and the news is quite disturbing. Dozens of studies by psychologists, neurobiologists, and educators point to the same conclusion: When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. Even as the Internet grants us easy access to vast amounts of information, it is turning us into shallower thinkers, literally changing the structure of our brain.
Author Nicolas Carr poses the question in his new book, The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains: What kind of brain is the Web giving us?
One of my personal favorites, "Graphica" is a furnishing fabric sample from British textile design maven Lucienne Day for Heal's. 1954, from The Fifties.
Paul Brown's plotter drawing "BIGDIM / 0 10 10 0 0 0 / 200,120 / 11,969" is an intricate progression and deconstruction of geometric shapes. 1979, from Digital Pioneers.
Plotter drawing by Robert Mallary, Untitled, 1981, from Digital Pioneers.
April, dress fabric. Clayton Knight/Stehli Silks Corporation. Crêpe de Chine. USA, 1927 (V&A: T.87N-1930). From V&A Pattern Series II: Novelty Patterns published by V&A Publishing and Abrams Books. 
Matelot, dress fabric. Calico Printers' Association. Roller-printed cotton. UK, 1934 (V&A: T.244-1987). From V&A Pattern Series II: Novelty Patterns published by V&A Publishing and Abrams Books.
From Greek chapter in The Grammar of Ornament, plate 57. Owen Jones. Lithograph. UK, 1856 (V&A: 49.G.53). From V&A Pattern Series II: Owen Jones published by V&A Publishing and Abrams Books.
