The author builds on her previous book, Proust and the Squid, to address what is happening to the brain as it adapts to digital mediums. Drawing on literature, philosophy, and neuroscience, she discourages a binary approach to the issue, print versus screen reading, but rather aims to understand what is nurtured or diminished by each. In the process, she raises three questions:
1. Will the next generation, adept in multitasking and quick access to multiple sources of knowledge, fail to fully develop their own “slower,” more demanding, deep reading processes, such as critical reasoning and perspective-taking, leaving them vulnerable to false information?
2. Will the seemingly continuous distractions on digital mediums change the nature of attention in our youth, and thus disrupt their ability to concentrate and consolidate new information into memory?
3. Across every age will skimming become the “new norm” that short-circuits the time needed for inferential thinking, critical analysis, reflection, and empathy—core elements for a democracy?
Author: Beth Allison Barr
