Is Reading Too Much Bad For Kids
Clinging to print can isolate kids and alienate them from the digital world of multitasking
“Kids are used to getting an instant answer,” she says. “But when you have words on paper, and you’re turning pages, your brain has to store that information in short-term memory; it’s a different way of processing.” Part of what kids learn from this is patience, as well as what she calls productive struggle. It’s the mental version of running five miles and coming out stronger and healthier. New technology is typically championed because it turns kids on, or because politicians think it will be cheaper; L.A.’s school district is giving its students iPads. But she’s skeptical that it’s better than reading a traditional bound book... “There used to be this idea that some things were deeper than others, that literature and the arts were the main road to understanding what life was about. People apprenticed themselves to that.” It’s not just serious culture that suffers when that fades away. It’s the self-reliance Emerson spoke about: As we wire ourselves into the same network, “individualism is becoming a kind of throwback.”