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A review by bioniclib
Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf
5.0
I had read, somewhere, that the brain retains info differently on a screen than it does on a printed page. This book unpacks that thought.
The brain is an amazingly complex:
"...there are as many connections in a single cubic centimeter of brain tissues as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.” 16.
and plastic thingie:
"Most important for this discussion, however, plasticity also underlies why the reading-brain circuit is inherently malleable (read changeable) and influenced by key environmental factors: specifically, what it reads (both the particular writing system and the content), how it reads (the particular medium, such as print or screen, and its effects on the way we read), and how it is formed (methods of instruction)." (18)
In her previous book, Proust and the Squid, I learned that there's no single area in the brain responsible for reading. In this book, I learned just how much of the brain we use to read:
"In essence, the combination of these three principles forms the basis of what few of us would ever suspect: a reading circuit that incorporates input from two hemispheres, four lobes in each hemisphere (frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital), and all five layers of the brain (from the uppermost telencephalon and adjacent diencephalon below it; to the middle layers of the mesencephalon; to the lower levels of the metencephalon and myelencephalon). Anyone who still believes the archaic canard that we use only a tiny portion of our brains hasn’t yet become aware of what we do when we read." (20)
That staggeringly complex process of reading is also why a screen isn't as good to read on:
"reading isn’t only about our young children’s brains. It involves their whole bodies; they see, smell, hear, and feel books." (133)
Being able to involve the entire body isn't just kids stuff, either. We all do it. And one of the things we gain from it is knowledge of how people other than our tribe lives and this knowledge can help us develop empathy. But the skimming our brains fall back on when reading on a screen isn't suited for development of empathy and the reliance on Google and other external memory sources means deep reading and critical thinking isn't well developed when reading on a screen.
The good news is, as evidenced by Ms. Wolf's experiment on herself, the detrimental effects of screen reading isn't irreversible.
The second half of the book details her suggestions on how to prevent this from happening to the children of today and tomorrow. And, no, it does not mean we should shuck all digital reading.
I really can't say enough about this book.
The brain is an amazingly complex:
"...there are as many connections in a single cubic centimeter of brain tissues as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.” 16.
and plastic thingie:
"Most important for this discussion, however, plasticity also underlies why the reading-brain circuit is inherently malleable (read changeable) and influenced by key environmental factors: specifically, what it reads (both the particular writing system and the content), how it reads (the particular medium, such as print or screen, and its effects on the way we read), and how it is formed (methods of instruction)." (18)
In her previous book, Proust and the Squid, I learned that there's no single area in the brain responsible for reading. In this book, I learned just how much of the brain we use to read:
"In essence, the combination of these three principles forms the basis of what few of us would ever suspect: a reading circuit that incorporates input from two hemispheres, four lobes in each hemisphere (frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital), and all five layers of the brain (from the uppermost telencephalon and adjacent diencephalon below it; to the middle layers of the mesencephalon; to the lower levels of the metencephalon and myelencephalon). Anyone who still believes the archaic canard that we use only a tiny portion of our brains hasn’t yet become aware of what we do when we read." (20)
That staggeringly complex process of reading is also why a screen isn't as good to read on:
"reading isn’t only about our young children’s brains. It involves their whole bodies; they see, smell, hear, and feel books." (133)
Being able to involve the entire body isn't just kids stuff, either. We all do it. And one of the things we gain from it is knowledge of how people other than our tribe lives and this knowledge can help us develop empathy. But the skimming our brains fall back on when reading on a screen isn't suited for development of empathy and the reliance on Google and other external memory sources means deep reading and critical thinking isn't well developed when reading on a screen.
The good news is, as evidenced by Ms. Wolf's experiment on herself, the detrimental effects of screen reading isn't irreversible.
The second half of the book details her suggestions on how to prevent this from happening to the children of today and tomorrow. And, no, it does not mean we should shuck all digital reading.
I really can't say enough about this book.