Carr reviews research from neuroscience and cognitive psychology indicating the phenomenal plasticity of the human brain. The structure and pathways of our brains change after performing only a few extended or routine tasks. Reading a book by Thomas Friedman about Arab politics, as opposed to an 800-word column of his from Jerusalem, doesn’t just result in greater knowledge about Middle Eastern affairs, but can actually affect the brain’s structure and how it processes a unified, developed set of arguments. In other words, read Carr’s book, not this commentary, if you want to strengthen more valuable neural pathways. It’s simple: Expose yourself to lengthier arguments and you’re better neurologically conditioned to develop lengthy arguments of your own.
Students I teach, predominantly Arab, are more likely to bring their smartphones to class than books. I’m sure some professors in the U.S. lament similar trends, but I’ve found the Blackberry-to-book ratio particularly striking in this part of the world.
An ability to digitally multitask is, of course, a marketable skill in the non-specialized workplace. Traditional book reading, though, is associated with important civic and psychological processes, and as younger Arabs are choosing Tweets over Twain and Facebook over Fukuyama when their book reading was seldom to begin with, concern isn’t an overreaction.
More early childhood literacy programs are needed in this part of the world in order to better establish reading as a routine exercise, as is authorship and translation of texts in colloquial dialects so that native Arabic speakers aren’t alienated from book-length arguments. Literacy programs in early childhood and beyond should emphasize leisurely book reading on Blackberrys, iPhones, iPads, and whatever comes next, and must make more children’s books available on these mobile reading devices.
The “shallows” that concern Carr were around in the Arab world before the digital dawn, but now it’s getting even harder to spot oases of books on a drier digital landscape. And the lack of water isn’t necessarily the drinker’s fault.
Interesting article.
However, I do I ascribe the Arab book-reading crisis to the difference between standard and colloquial Arabic. I think it is a simple matter of habit and foundation. After all, a significant portion of book-readers in the Arab world in the current generation read English books almost-exclusively. Whereas in the past generation, the majority of book-readers read Arabic books. So I think that if people were brought up in an environment that encouraged book reading, then they would do so.
#1 Posted by Hussam Abu-Libdeh, CJR on Tue 3 Aug 2010 at 05:49 AM
I'm 17 and I've no problem reading at all; as a kid, my mom always encouraged me to read although I do stick to English books. I agree with Mr. Hussam that it's the environment that decides whether or not one reads books. The general environment in the Arab world simply doesn't promote book reading. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak's campaign has been trying to change that although I don't know if it's working or not.
#2 Posted by Maya K., CJR on Tue 17 Aug 2010 at 01:52 AM
I'm 17 and I've no problem reading at all; as a kid, my mom always encouraged me to read although I do stick to English books. I agree with Mr. Hussam that it's the environment that decides whether or not one reads books. The general environment in the Arab world simply doesn't promote book reading. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak's campaign has been trying to change that although I don't know if it's working or not.
#3 Posted by Maya K., CJR on Tue 17 Aug 2010 at 01:53 AM