A provocative article in the forthcoming issue of Atlantic Monthly argues that Web surfing is rewiring our brains, making us unable to stay focused long enough to make it to the end of a book or long article.
To support his thesis, the author, Nicholas Carr, cites these scholars: Bruce Friedman, of the University of Michigan Medical School; Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University; and James Olds, a professor of neuroscience at George Mason University. Mr. Carr also mentions a report of online research habits by scholars from University College London.
A study by the National Endowment for the Arts also seems to support Mr. Carr’s argument. The study, “To Read or Not to Read,” showed, among other things, that the portion of college graduates who were proficient in reading prose declined 23 percent from 1992 to 2003.—Andrea L. Foster
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