Posts by David Schatsky from July 29, 2008

David Schatsky | July 29, 2008, 11:22 AM
Who Cares If We're Getting Dumber?

As consumers spend more time with the Internet they are spending less time with books. {Clients can see some recent Jupiter work on media consumption trends here.) Some observers are worried. Motoko Rich had a great piece in the New York Times over the weekend that looked at the impact of online behavior and Web reading habits on reading, thinking and concentration skills and looked at these worries.

"Some scientists worry that the fractured experience typical of the Internet could rob developing readers of crucial skills," she writes.

Some of the worry is about the impact of Web usage on the brain itself. "Neurological studies show that learning to read changes the brain’s circuitry," she says. "Scientists speculate that reading on the Internet may also affect the brain’s hard wiring in a way that is different from book reading."

In duly balanced New York Times fashion, Rich also cites opposing views--that the Web might actually be enriching users' ability to process information. "Web proponents believe that strong readers on the Web may eventually surpass those who rely on books. Reading five Web sites, an op-ed article and a blog post or two, experts say, can be more enriching than reading one book.

'It takes a long time to read a 400-page book,' said Mr. Spiro of Michigan State. 'In a tenth of the time,' he said, the Internet allows a reader to 'cover a lot more of the topic from different points of view.'”

Apart from the intrinsically interesting question of whether Web use is making us dumber, I wondered why people should care, especially if their own kids (like mine) are avid readers of linear paper media. Along with other surprise benefits of the Internet, such as the destruction of popular culture, perhaps the Web creates an opportunity for those of us and our offspring who have retained cognitive skills to out-maneuver the e-nitwits in our competition for the best jobs and richest resources in a dumbed-down world of the future.

Then I read, in today's Times, David Brook's column, cites new research on stagnant educational attainment in the United States, saying that as a result the country's long-term prospects are in jeopardy. But Brooks extends a compelling benefit to those who escape the dumbing down envisioned by e-nitwit hypothesis: In a dumbed-down world, "The relatively few skilled workers command higher prices, while the many unskilled ones have little bargaining power."

So whether you care about declining educational attainment, or whether surging Internet use is developing or crippling cognitive skills, depends partly on whether you you take a narrow, self-interested perspective, or a broader one, which by necessity must consider the the plight of many of us who depend on rich resources of human capital to run our businesses. What will we do if the wells run dry?