Today I finished reading
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. In this very well-written treatise about not only the Internet but about how our brains work (in particular how memory works), Nicholas Carr persuasively argues for more time off-line. He puts to rest a number of current myths, for instance the idea that only young people are "natives" in Internet culture. The brain's plasticity seems an encouraging thing (so if constant distractions create a short attention span, then deliberate attention can repair this tendency?), but I wonder if my habit of writing in longhand in a notebook each morning is going to seem increasingly antiquated to my students. I worry about the future of reading novels, and of writing them.
But I also went sledding today with my daughters and one of their friends, which is one effective way to get all of us away from our electronic devices, not to mention the television.
http://www.theshallowsbook.com/nicholascarr/Nicholas_Carrs_The_Shallows.html
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