In reading, we are both scientists and poets.
Maryanne WolfRead
Digital technology can be a great resource, but it can also be a pernicious one, so it's how we, as a society, really study the cognitive impact of that and use evidence-based research to go after the technology designers to do a better job of dealing with the problems of memory and attention we are seeing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Digital technology has both positive and negative effects on our cognitive abilities, and it's essential to study and address these impacts.
In this quote, Maryanne Wolf highlights the dual nature of digital technology, presenting it as both a valuable resource and a potentially harmful influence on our cognitive functions, particularly concerning memory and attention. She emphasizes the importance of societal awareness and evidence-based research to advocate for better design practices among technology creators, ensuring they consider the psychological effects of their innovations.
Themes
Digital TechnologyCognitive ImpactMemoryAttentionResearch
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about the effects of smartphone use on students' attention spans.
More from Maryanne Wolf
All quotes →The acquisition of literacy is one of the most important epigenetic achievements of Homo sapiens. To our knowledge, no other species ever acquired it.
Maryanne WolfRead
The quality of our reading is not only an index of the quality of our thought; it is our best-known route to developing whole new pathways in the cerebral evolution of our species.
Maryanne WolfRead
There's a richness that reading gives you, an opportunity to probe more than any other medium I know of. Reading is about not being content with the surface.
Maryanne WolfRead
The attention span of children may be one of the main reasons why an immersion in on-screen reading is so engaging, and it may also be why digital reading may ultimately prove antithetical to the long-in-development, reflective nature of the expert reading brain as we know it.
Maryanne WolfRead
There's no question that our children's attention and memory is changing when they are reading too long, too much, too early on digital screens.
Maryanne WolfRead
Similar quotes
The Internet was supposed to be the greatest tool of global communications and means of sharing knowledge in human history. And it is. But it has also become the most effective instrument of mass surveillance and potentially one of the greatest instruments of totalitarianism in the history of the world.
Trevor PaglenRead
You don't get to cut that chain of evidence and start over. You're always going to be pursued by your data shadow, which is forming from thousands and thousands of little leaks and tributaries of information.
Bruce SterlingRead
We’re keenly aware that when we develop and make something and bring it to market that it really does speak to a set of values. And what preoccupies us is that sense of care, and what our products will not speak to is a schedule, what our products will not speak to is trying to respond to some corporate or competitive agenda. We’re very genuinely designing the best products that we can for people.
Jonathan IveRead
Technology and the Internet are not just changing politics here in the U.S. It's also happening abroad. In the Philippines, where I grew up, grassroots organizers used text messaging to help overthrow a president.
Jose Antonio VargasRead
The first man-made satellite to orbit the earth was named Sputnik. The first living creature in space was Laika. The first rocket to the Moon carried a red flag. The first photograph of the far side of the Moon was made with a Soviet camera. If a man orbits the earth this year his name will be Ivan.
John F. KennedyRead
In my opinion, right now there's way too much hype on the technologies and not enough attention to the real businesses behind them.
Mark CubanRead