New Zealand Listener - October 13, 2018

14 LISTENER OCTOBER 13 2018

Many of us reading digital media now use

an F- or Z-shaped pattern in which we read

the first line then word-spot through the

rest of a text.

This has its place. But at risk, warns Wolf,

is our aptitude for “deep reading” – the abil-

ity to discern truth, apply critical analysis,

gauge inference, develop empathy, appreci-

ate beauty and go beyond “our present glut

of information” to reach the knowledge and

wisdom necessary to sustain a good society.

In the seven years it took her to write

Proust and the Squid, reading itself changed.

When she finished, she writes, “I lifted my

head to look about me and felt as if I were

Rip Van Winkle ... our entire literacy-based

GETTY IMAGESculture had begun its transformation into a

LITERACY THREAT

very different, digitally based culture.”

The critical question, says Wolf, is

whether the increasing reliance of our

youth on digital media proves a threat to

the young brain’s building of its own foun-

dation of knowledge, and the child’s desire

“[People] will be far

more attracted to false

news or worse. The US is

suffering this. They will

be more susceptible to

people who give false

promises and false fears.”

Maryanne Wolf: “How we read is inluencing

what we read.”

to think and imagine for him- or herself.

“Or will these new technologies provide

the best, most complete bridge yet to ever

more sophisticated forms of cognition and

imagination?”

GOOGLE MAN’S BELIEF IN BOOKS

Many are worried. Almost a decade ago, Eric

Schmidt, former chief executive of Google,

raised the alarm that the “overwhelming

rapidity of information” is affecting deeper

thinking: “I still believe that sitting down

and reading a book is the best way to really

learn something. And I worry that we’re