... first the debate at the Britannica Blog.
... then a piece in today's NYT: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? (Hat tip, Dave Lull, Lee Lowe, and Judith Fitzgerald.)
... and this, which inject some facts - as opposed to anecdotes - into the debate: It's the screens, not the internet, that are making us stupid. (Hat tip, Lee Lowe.)
I don't for a moment buy the idea that reading electronically in any way diminishes the capacity to read print. I read lots of both and notice know difference (I know, that's anecdotal; but it's also what I've experienced - ooh, I just used a semicolon).
Anytime this comes up, I remember Steven Berlin Johnson's Dawn of the Digital Natives, which covers the contrarian view well. Then again, as I mentioned here, I'm not convinced that this, if it is a problem, can be changed anyway, especially using the nattering methods most often employed.
ReplyDelete<*ahem*>
ReplyDeleteMr. Wilson, Suh! You think I am going to take the bait, go dip-and-diving after that spangly dangly fool's goad, don'tcha? Har. I'd rather eat a nug; and, if you don't know the ref, you'll have to rent the movie Silent Partner (which, IIRC, starred Robert Joy; but, I might be wrong).
DO NOT PASS SEMI-GO: GO DIRECTLY TO COLON JAIL. (OR ELSE!)
Excuse my rusty creakin' memory of the film to which I referred: Firstly, it's called The Silent Partner (1978); secondly, it wasn't Robert Joy; it was Elliott Gould (as well as John Candy, Christopher Plummer, and Tony Rosato, the Canadian SNL star afflicted with Capgras Disorder). A fine-tuned suspense flick, though, regardless of who played Santa Claus:
ReplyDeletehttp://us.imdb.com/title/tt0078269/