With the Internet, “the promise is of infinite knowledge, but what’s delivered is infinite information, and the two are hardly the same…. Brain studies show that true learning is largely an unconscious process. If we’re inundated with data, our brains’ synthesizing functions are overwhelmed by the effort to keep up. And the original purpose – deeper knowledge of the subject – is lost….
I’m not wishing the Internet away. It has become so integral to my work – to my life – that I honestly can’t recall what I did without it…. [Yet] as alluring as we can find the perpetual pursuit of little thoughts, the net result may only be to prevent us from forming the big ones.”
– Peggy Orenstein
NY Times Magazine, October 25, 2009
