Technology Changes the Way We Read (and Think)

Technology changes much more than the way we write; it changes the way we read, and by changing the way we read, it changes the way we think. By using technology in the classroom, (i.e. using e-learning software, requiring the use of certain programs, and overusing online content etc.) we allow for students to adopt the same reading style they use when using technology for personal use. Mark Bauerlein, citing a study by Jakkob Nielsen, reports that most readers of web content hardly “read” the words on the page at all, but merely skim them. This skim reading becomes habitual. Content becomes mindlessly surveyed out of obligation rather than truly learned, mastered, and appreciated. This pattern does not stop in an academic setting. Bauerlein says that “screen reading is a mind-set, and we should accept its variance from academic thinking,” and “it conspires against certain intellectual habits requisite to liberal-arts learning.” These habits including, but not limited to, the true desire to read and ponder a large novel, the urge to study poetry, history, and philosophy, and the need to question and observe the world around us, atrophy with any screen reading, be it reading a Facebook profile, or a class webpage. “Students see only the chance to extend long-established postures toward the screen” continues Bauerlein. If this is true, technology in the composition classroom could potentially cause problems, particularly in introductory level classes, where students begin to form collegiate reading, writing, and studying habits. I agree with Bauerlein; we must recognize that the laziness with which students read entertainment content will carry over into their reading of educational content and create bad intellectual habits. In a larger context, if students inevitably spend their time outside of class engaging in technological leisure activities, to preserve the desire to read a large novel, or question the world at large, we must provide a place where they are asked to perform intellectually. It is up to English educators, dubbed “stewards of literacy” by Bauerlein, to provide such a place.