Deep Thinking

 The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains
                              by Nicholas  Carr, W.W. Norton, 2010 (Adult Nonfiction)

I once asked one of my librarian colleagues, Dan Nagel, what the kids in his school were reading. "Oh, I don't know that they're reading," he replied. "They're just scanning and skimming to pass the AR tests."  That really came home to me as I read Nicholas Carr's part history, part philosophy, part neuroscience nonfiction book. Carr presents a compelling body of evidence that reading printed books promotes deep and creative thought. As teachers and librarians, we all buy that reading builds vocabulary and grows young minds. But, Carr goes on to show how in constantly putting together bits of information from the Internet's many sources, we are taking our brains in new directions.  The book jacket even surmises, "We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection." Someone in an adult book group recently told me that she's having trouble concentrating and "getting lost in a good book" these days, but she has no trouble reading computer related research at work. I don't have answers, but take at careful look at what Nicholas Carr thinks. It might well change your mind on the topic!