At the World Economic Forum last week over in Davos, Switzerland, another figure rose up to warn of the dangers that the digital revolution pose to reading. He stated, “The one that I do worry about is the question of ‘deep reading.’” Surveying the plethora of “instantaneous devices,” he declared that “you spend less time reading all forms of literature, books, magazines and so forth.” The habits damage reading skills, and they damage cognition, too, he maintained, although he took a moment to defend gaming as an activity that can improve certain reasoning skills.
The turn away from “deep reading” especially affects the young, he declared, which is why the story was headlined, “Google boss worries about teen reading.” Yes, the speaker was Google chairman Eric Schmidt.
8 Responses to The Latest One to Worry About Book Reading
roxbury86 - February 2, 2010 at 6:31 am
Does this “article’ really deserve a by-line? Hopefully it took less than 3 minutes to write – and is just an anecdotal waste of time.
dr_redrum - February 2, 2010 at 11:22 am
Davos…Google chair warns nodeep reading
dank48 - February 2, 2010 at 11:55 am
Actually, taking the trouble to check the story is worth it. Schmidt isn’t the first to belatedly realize that his little project has had and is having unforeseen consequences. Think of Oppenheimer at the Trinity test: “I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.” At least Schmidt is facing up to the reality. And Bauerlein is reporting on that fact. When did logorrhea become preferable to conciseness?
rmelton5 - February 2, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I, too, value the conciseness, as long as there is a link to a fuller report.
22188544 - February 2, 2010 at 2:15 pm
The more attention this topic gets, the better. I see more and more students lacking the attention and ability to deal with deeper, complex topics– thanks, Mark.
charliemarlow - February 2, 2010 at 3:01 pm
And now you know the rest of the story…
markbauerlein - February 2, 2010 at 6:34 pm
For more discussion of the issue, Brittanica Blog has a nice forum here:http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2010/01/learning-literacy-forum/And in a few hours, at 9pm, PBS Frontline airs a show entitled “Digital Nation.”
middlebrow - February 3, 2010 at 10:14 am
I enjoy Mark’s posts. He calls attention to a debate that we’re not really having in higher ed.Also: saw Digital Nation last night. Well done Mark, although I thought that they could have highlighted more of the data from your book.