Nicholas Carr

Nicholas Carr is an American journalist and writer known for his analysis of the human consequences of technology. Carr has published books and articles on technology, business, and culture, contributing to debates in both academic and professional circles. He has served as a visiting professor of sociology at Williams College and was executive editor of Harvard Business Review. Carr has also been a writer-in-residence at the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and participated in the World Economic Forum's cloud computing project.

Carr gained prominence with the Harvard Business Review article "IT Doesn't Matter" and the book "Does IT Matter?," in which he argued that the strategic importance of information technology in business has diminished as IT has become more standardized and accessible. His work prompted significant discussion within the information technology industry, including responses from executives at Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard. Carr continued his exploration of digital transformation with "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google," which examines the economic and social impact of cloud computing and draws parallels to the rise of electric utilities.

Carr is also the author of "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," a national bestseller and a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award for research nonfiction and the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. The book is frequently cited in discussions about technology's effects on cognition and society. In "The Glass Cage: Automation and Us," Carr explores the personal and societal consequences of increasing reliance on automation, computers, and robotics. His collection "Utopia Is Creepy: and Other Provocations" critiques American techno-utopianism and the culture of Silicon Valley.

In "Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart," Carr examines the influence of social media and messaging apps on society, relationships, and individual identity. Carr's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Wired, Nature, Politico, and MIT Technology Review. His essays, including "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and "The Great Forgetting," have been featured in anthologies such as "The Best American Science and Nature Writing," "The Best Spiritual Writing," and "The Best Technology Writing."

Carr has delivered keynote addresses and lectures at conferences and institutions worldwide, including Google Atmosphere, Seoul Digital Forum, Futurecom, Salesforce Dreamforce, MIT, Harvard, University of California at Berkeley, Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania, Notre Dame, Williams College, and NASA. He received the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity from the Media Ecology Association. Optimize magazine recognized Carr as a leading thinker on information technology, and eWeek included him among the 100 most influential people in IT.