Review of iBrain by Gary Small, M.D. and Gigi Vorgan

iBrain  Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind.

This book was hard for me to get into.  I picked it up several times before I was finally able to get through it.  It's full of lots of information about our digital lives, but I found it a bit boring.  I'd find myself skimming over things and then having to go back and read them fully.  It reads more like a technical manual or a textbook.  That may be of interest to many, but it wasn't for me.  The authors seem to have a good grasp of the material, but for me it wasn't presented in a way that really kept my interest for long.

I did see some of myself in some of the pages though, especially reading about addiction to email and online dating.  I went through that when I first got online in 2001, so it was nice to read that I wasn't alone.  It was also interesting to see the top searches from the different search engines for 2007.  I am a google searcher, so seeing the section called "your brain on google" gave me a good chuckle.  I'm not much of an online gamer or gambler, but it was a good idea to include that for those who are. 

The section about chat and text abbreviations also hit home.  I've been online awhile now, but still have to ask my teenaged niece and nephew what some of them mean.  I see how they can text and do a bunch of other things at once.  I can't text to save my life.  I do see the generational gap that the book touched on. 

I do know some people who are more connected to their online lives than they are to their "real" ones, and I think this book might be a good idea for them to read.  I saw myself heading that way years ago, but luckily having to move home awhile with limited internet access nipped that pretty quickly for me.  Now I can go without checking my email and my other internet sites and know the world will not end.  The book does give some good advice on how to get help for different internet addictions, and that's helpful. 

It's definitely not the worst book i've ever read.  It's not even a bad book.  For me it was just a but to slow of a read.  I'd recommend it though, especially to people who can't go an hour without being connected.