Wow. This is an amazing video of a presentation at TED by Temple Grandin, who is an autistic scientist and the subject of an HBO movie.
Tag - science
Initially, any new information medium seems to degrade reading because it disturbs the balance between focal and peripheral attention. This was true as early as the invention of writing, which Plato complained hollowed out focal memory. Similarly, William Wordsworth’s sister complained that he wasted his mind in the newspapers of the day. It takes time and adaptation before a balance can be restored, not just in the “mentality” of the reader, as historians of the book like to say, but in the social systems that complete the reading environment.
via Does the Brain Like E-Books? – Room for Debate Blog – NYTimes.com.