it. Reading is a different experience than when we were young—each word offers the possibility for linking out to something else, and the main text just doesn’t have the same gravity it once did. But is this larger network actually providing us with a larger understanding?

Books were good at developing a contemplative mind. Screens encourage more utilitarian thinking. A new idea or unfamiliar fact uncovered while screening will provoke our reflex to do something: to research the term, to query your screen “friends” for their opinions, to find alternative views, to create a bookmark, to interact with or tweet the thin