Myth: When walking up the graceful oval staircase that adorns the Higgins University Center, it is nearly impossible not to notice the following quote emblazoned across the large windows directly above the main entrance: “Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” While it is attributed to Nicholas Carr and his book, The Shallows, no other explanation is given.

Why in the world would Clark University, an institution that encourages us to challenge convention in the pursuit of changing our world, post such a depressing, hopeless quotation in such a prominent location? Who is Nicholas Carr and what are the mysterious Shallows? Is this some lost classic piece of seafaring literature? Is he some ancient philosopher that I never learned about? With these questions, I set out to explore the hidden history of this quote and its elusive source.

Fact: Nicholas Carr is not an enlightenment era philosopher and The Shallows isn’t the nostalgic nautical epic its imagery suggests. In fact, the full title of his book is The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Published in 2010, Carr’s book is a treatise on the dangers of America’s so-called “internet addiction”. It was well received and even considered for a Pulitzer Prize in 2011.

This is all well and good, but why does this belong at Clark University? The passage appears to talk cynically about the brevity of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Upperclassmen may remember Carr doing a guest lecture at Clark in the Fall of 2010, promoting his newly released book. Apparently, in preparation for this prestigious visitor, the faculty and administration posted various profound quotations from Carr’s book around campus, encouraging students to address their own use of technology and social media. When the lecture was over, the other quotations were taken down and largely forgotten. For some reason, no one ever got around to scraping the passage off the main UC window. Thus, it remains today, apparently to remind students that they are shallow and narcissistic individuals in the mind of Nicholas Carr.