Reading Beyond Paper

The hyperconnectivity of the internet and social media is a reality that is here to stay; the constant bombardment of information through the digital screens of computers, tablets, and smartphones is enormous, and identifying both its potential and its vices poses a significant challenge. Historically, every technological advance has brought with it both positive and negative effects, so attributing the origin of certain social ills to information technology is premature. According to Ureña et al. (2014), some experts suggest that exposure to digital screens may be changing the structure of the brain, so it is possible that society is undergoing a process of adaptation in order to cope with the new multitasking and concentration challenges that today's dynamics demand. The controversy surrounding the subject is growing; however, one fact is clear: the way we assimilate information, memorize, and learn is changing significantly, to such a degree that it has set off alarm bells among a wide range of researchers. The concerns tend to revolve around the possible decline in the cognitive abilities of those who spend more time reading through digital sources, as Carbajosa's work aptly notes (as cited in Wolf, 2010, in her book ¿Cómo aprendemos a leer?): “there is a fear that digital reading is short-circuiting the human brain, to the point of hindering deep, critical, and analytical reading” (para. 3). Correlating the decline in reading comprehension with the frequent use of tablets, computers, or smartphones is no trivial matter; the results are often ambiguous. Given that memorization is a factor that significantly influences text comprehension, Ureña's (2014) research offers us interesting data in this regard. A group of 51 Mexican university students was selected with the aim of exploring any relationship between the frequency of online social media use and the capacity for memorization. The study revealed that there is no causal relationship between the intensity of social media use, gender, age, or university major and memorization; that is, the data do not support the hypothesis that students who spend more time on social media, and therefore on digital reading, have a lower capacity for memorization. There are also fairly pessimistic positions regarding digital reading, such as that of the renowned writer Carr (2010), who claims that the digital environment promotes hurried reading, distracted thinking, and superficial learning. He goes even further in his article published in 2008 in The Atlantic, titled Is Google Making Us Stupid?:

In recent years I have had the uncomfortable feeling that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping its neural circuitry, reprogramming its memory. It is not that I am losing my mind—so far as I can tell—but it is changing me. I am not thinking the way I used to think. I notice it most when I read. I used to find it easy to immerse myself in a book or a long article. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the twists of the argument, and I would spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That is rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration almost always starts to drift after two or three pages. I grow restless, lose the thread, and begin looking for something else to do. The deep reading that once came naturally to me has become a struggle. I think I know what is going on. For more than a decade now, I have been spending a great deal of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great database of the internet. The web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks of libraries or periodical rooms I can now do in minutes. A few Google searches, a few quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I have the telling fact or the pithy quotation I was after. But the help comes at a price. (Paras. 2, 3, 4, 7)

While the relationship between declining reading comprehension and digital reading does not seem to be entirely settled, it is possible to state that frequent internet use is often associated with certain behaviors harmful to young people. In this context, the research carried out by Conde et al. (2010), members of the psychology department at the University of La Laguna in Spain, provides significant results. The study reveals a relationship between internet use and academic performance in a sample of Canarian adolescents. On this occasion, 578 adolescents took part in a semi-structured interview about consumption habits, the results of which showed that the daily frequency of internet connection among those surveyed is two hours per day—with the male population having a higher average than the female one—and found a correlation between time spent online and the number of class absences and the number of failed courses, but not with performance in subjects that are key to academic training, such as Language and Mathematics. It is certainly appropriate to make young people aware of a rational and healthy use of digital media, but far from what might be considered inappropriate use, various studies reveal that the decline in the capacity for concentration, comprehension, or memorization cannot be explained, at least not entirely, by the frequent use of computers, tablets, or smartphones that encourage digital reading. Information technology has brought us countless benefits: it has made it possible to communicate massively and permanently with millions of people; it has been one of the most effective means of spreading knowledge and information ever known in history; it has enabled people today to read more varied content, from different parts of the world, without physical or language limitations; it has fostered self-directed learning and collaboration among different people on academic, economic, or social projects; it has brought society closer to the democratization of culture by allowing people to be both consumers and producers of content; it has also been able to offer an almost countless availability of content that reinforces and strengthens learning at school, university, or work; it has saved the world from an inefficient and disproportionate use of paper; and, finally, it has made it possible for people with the fewest resources to enter a universe of information that in times past might have been considered unthinkable. In short, reading is a cognitive process that goes beyond paper. © Alejandro Guipe | All Rights Reserved. References Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains. Nueva York: W.W. Norton. Valerio Ureña, G., Leyva Cantúa, T., Caraza Camacho, R., Rodríguez-Martínez, M. (2014). Redes sociales en línea y la capacidad de memorización de los estudiantes universitarios. REDIE. Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa, 16 (3), 118-128. Carbajosa, A. (Mayo 2015) ¿Recuerdas cuando se leía de corrido?. . Disponible en http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/05/06/actualidad/1430927826\_ 380794.html. . Wolf, M (2010). ¿Cómo aprendemos a leer? Madrid- España: Ediciones B No Ficción / Divulgación