The Shallows — Nicholas Carr (2010)

Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains drew on neuroscience and cognitive science research to argue that the internet is physically reshaping the neural pathways responsible for deep reading and sustained attention. Its publication in 2010 — before smartphones became ubiquitous — proved prescient. Cal Newport, Jonathan Haidt, and a generation of researchers on technology and attention have built on Carr's foundational arguments.