Burning the Page: The eBook revolution and the future of reading

and an orchid: one without the other would likely not last. Digital books will form an unlikely alliance with social networks, and they’ll both survive the changing tides of fashion and the flighty whims of technology.
    Still, one of the reasons I adore dedicated e-readers like the Kindle and the Nook, as opposed to tablets like the iPad, is that they keep your attention on an ebook as you read. Like with a print book, you’ve got a dedicated reading experience with no distractions—no buzzing lights or videos or ads for meeting singles online or tweets to respond to. I worry when reading experiences start to include too much distraction and context shifting. As someone sensitive to media ecology, that’s where I draw the line. I think all of us, our children included, should be encouraged toward dedicated experiences, not distracting ones.
    Our devices are shortening our children’s attention spans. Our children need to concentrate when they learn to read to become good readers—and from that, good thinkers. But our hypermediated environment is one of constant distraction, so our kids are often learning to read—and through that, to think—in a rather shallow and careless way. It never used to be possible, let alone culturally acceptable, to read and watch TV at the same time. You would have to pick one or the other to focus on.
    But now with devices like the iPad, you can multitask between them, switching from reading to watching a video when the book becomes too hard. And let’s face it: our brains are lazy. Ask any cognitive neuroscientist, and they’ll tell you that our brains are machines for avoiding work, if there’s any work to be done. And reading is hard work. It’s rewarding, true, but you have to actively work at it. When you skim a book and passively read it, you don’t recall as much of what you’ve read as when you pause, linger over sentences, find the humor or irony in them, and actively work at the reading experience.
    That said, not everyone can focus. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) causes inattention, distractibility, and disorganization. Incidences of this disorder are on the rise. In fact, it’s estimated that up to 10 percent of American children have this. At the time of this book’s writing, doctors still don’t know what causes ADHD. But most doctors would agree that you don’t try to fight inattention with more inattention. If anything, children with ADHD are encouraged to create routines and avoid distractions. Snacking on digital media on iPads and similar multifunction tablets only feeds the inattention.
    Not just children have ADHD. Many adults do too, and the numbers are still climbing. Maybe it’s part and parcel of carrying around so many smartphones and tablets and laptops, of being too plugged in to the internet and chat windows and glittering digital eye-candy. But this disorder is debilitating. In the end state, if this continues unchecked, we run the risk of becoming a nation of ADHDers, unable to focus, engage, or reason clearly.
    What’s the way out of this?
    Simplicity, mindfulness, and attention. It might be as simple as doing nothing. As long as it’s the right kind of nothing.
    In the book Hamlet’s BlackBerry , author William Powers describes a technique that works for him. He calls it a “Walden Zone.” It’s a room without electronics. A room in your house where you can think, like Thoreau on Walden Pond. A place where you can meditate and contemplate—and ideally, you’re not contemplating what your next game of Angry Birds will be like or how you’ll beat your former score.
    It’s a technique I use in my own life. There’s always a room in my house with no gadgetry, and I try every year to take a vacation for a few weeks somewhere without electricity. I try to reconnect with myself. Even if you don’t suffer from ADHD, this might work for you too.
    If you have other techniques to stay focused that work, why not share them with others who are passionate about ebooks but wary of the perils of having too many distractions? And if you’re a parent or a teacher, what do you think about how reading is taught these days? Do you think kids can become good readers when music and TV and the web and texting are taking up their attention and taking them out of their books?
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The Last Digital Frontier
    One of the amazing things about the ebook revolution is how much attention it has gotten in