I thought I'd throw in a mention of a book on a similar topic, "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains", a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2011: htt

I thought I'd throw in a mention of a book on a similar topic, "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains", a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2011: http://www.nicholascarr.com/?page_id=16 http://www.nicholascarr.com/?page_id=16 If I had to summarize a few takeaways: * Books are read in a linear fashion. Following a simple linear path helps us focus our attention on the content in a book and digest it. Reading cultivates habits of focusing and thinking deeply about a single topic. * The internet is full of rich sources of information but is also full of distractions. People browsing the web simultaneously digest content and make decisions about how to navigate through that content, which distracts from the ability to absorb the content and form associations with it. Compared to book reading, web browsing also encourages quick-pleasure-seeking rather than focused, intentional, sustained attention that books help cultivate.