Several months ago, I interviewed Kitty Burns Florey, author of “Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting”, a book that bemoans the loss of young people today who actually write, as opposed to type, and the cognitive effect that a lack of handwriting can have on children. I recently read, with much interest, an op-ed by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam that considers the increasing predominance of reading on a screen over picking up a book and how it has affected the way in which we process information.
Beam cites researcher Anne Mangen’s paper in the Journal of Research and Reading that notes: “The feeling of literally being in touch with the text is lost when your actions - clicking with the mouse, pointing on touch screens, or scrolling with keys or on touch pads - take place at a distance from the digital text….” She concludes: “One main effect of the intangibility of the digital text is that of making us read in a shallower, less focused way.’’ Like Burns Florey, Mangen feels that something is lost with the total reliance on the computer and other gadgets to read and write.
As I type this piece on my Blackberry, truly valuing the ease which this and other devices allow, I also worry about the effect that the digital age will have on my children’s learning. I was a voracious reader as a child and wonder what the constant stream of information that the Internet age fosters will mean for my three boys. Will they depend on the computer and Kindle-type machines for reading? Will the lack of a visceral feeling of paper and a dependence on the keyboard for writing have a deleterious impact on their learning?
I write a great deal and certainly use my Blackberry and computer on a daily basis, but I still take the greatest pleasure in being able to sit down and write out thoughts and concepts the old-fashioned way- longhand on a legal pad, much as I did when I used to practice law. As my kids encounter the digital age, I will see firsthand how our new technology impacts the young mind. As thrilled as I am that my six-year-old can quite easily navigate the keyboard and loves to play chess online, I definitely have some trepidation about the loss of good old-fashioned writing and reading.
Tags: Alex Beam, Ann Mangen, Blackberry, book, Boston Globe, children, computer, development, digital age, education, handwriting, Internet age, Journal of Research and Reading, keyboards, Kindle, kitty burns florey, online chess, paper, reading, screening, Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, six-year-old, technology, young mind
