Deep Reading John 3:16

Is Google making us stupid? That’s what Nicholas Carr asserts. Is it becoming harder for us to read carefully, thoughtfully and “deeply”?

The venerable New York Times has long been nicknamed “the gray lady” because of the density of its copy and the depth of its coverage. More than most, the Times is a newspaper for people who like to read. Yet last March, the editors decided to devote the second and third pages of every issue not to important and timely articles, but to summaries of articles that appear elsewhere in the paper. Those two pages are kind of a hulked-out table of contents.

Management explained that they made this change to address two complaints they were hearing. One was from readers who said they didn’t have enough time to read the fuller articles. The other was from readers who said that because there was so much in each issue, they often overlooked the articles they really cared about.

One observer, however, says the change is also evidence of a larger trend in our world, one which may not be for the good. Writing in The Atlantic, Nicholas Carr, who watches technology, business and culture, said that the ...