Structure

The Shallows is divided into 10 chapters that each focus on a theme relevant to Carr’s overall argument that the Internet is changing the way people’s minds work. These chapters follow a general structure of introducing a new topic through a modern or historical example, after which Carr provides additional evidence to that example’s point and relate the topic to the Internet.

The book also includes a Prologue and Epilogue. In the Prologue, Carr sets the context for the inquiry of study by framing the subject of the book through the lens of media scholar Marshall McLuhan. He ends the novel, in the Epilogue, with a slightly more personal approach by countering an example he encountered of artificial intelligence gone awry and leaves the reader to think about the future of technology and its impacts.

Throughout the novel, Carr includes several additional chapters, called digressions...