Are Too Many eBooks Bad For You?

By Jason Boog 

9780060186395.jpgHas reading digital texts and books changed your brain? With an idea that makes this blog editor shiver, one doctor worries that our brains will change as we read more eBooks.

In a Christian Science Monitor article about digital books, child development professor Maryanne Wolf explained that our brains benefit from the “deep dive” and “immersive” experience of reading a print book–a meditative activity championed by Marcel Proust in the 19th Century. Wolf studies these ideas in her book, “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.”

Here’s a quote from Wolf, from the article: “My concern is that we will develop within the next generation a shorter, less-enriched [brain] circuitry for reading … And I don’t think I’m ultraconservative. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t read online…. I’m saying that we need to preserve what’s best about the present reading brain–preserve the beautiful function of books in our lives–as we move across mediums that will allow us ever greater access to information.”