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"Book to the Future": What a Podcast and the ABC Teach Us About the Digital Brain
An ode and exploration inspired by Professor Maryanne Wolf’s insights on “Global Roaming” and the media landscapes of “The Matter of Facts”.
We’ve learned that reading is a biologically secondary skill, and our brains were never wired to read at all…
However, with the rapid pace of generative AI (and how quickly we consume content – hello endless scroll!) we are training our brains to skim rather than comprehend.
Our brains are literally being rewired by the algorithm, leaving us vulnerable to digital manipulation.
As you may have gathered, I love words! “Words, Roxanne”. “Words that never were true.” Classic child of older parents, referencing Cyrano de Bergerac and The Monkees, but fear not – this all connects. It’s part of my tangential style, the interconnectedness of themes is something that I don’t see AI ever able to replace.
I’ve had the good fortune to grow up surrounded by physical media. My home was an eclectic library, full of books! My parents would read to me each night, with my favourite novels on repeat. The Never-ending Story true to its name! (A big thank you to my father especially for sharing in those adventures with Bastian Balthazar Bux and myself, reading that doorstopper when I could not yet do so.)
And that is why our current reality – the speed in which we take in information, consuming via the endless scroll and constant swipe of our screens – does indeed give me a little bit of the heebie-jeebies. It’s also the inescapability of it all too: we can’t be without our phones (nor without AI) but this short-form content is physically changing our brains. Professor Maryanne Wolf (my new role model) has pointed out that we are losing the capacity for deep, slow reading.
So, How Did We Get Here?
Hamish MacDonald, whom a wise woman I know once called “the thinking woman’s crumpet”, had a recent show on the ABC named The Matter of Facts, where he unpacked dis- and mis-information in the digital age. He interviewed a host of participants and experts, one of whom was Maryanne Wolf herself.
We were never born to read, as there is no “reading centre” in the human genome. In learning to read, the brain is physically hacking itself, co-opting bits and bobs meant for our vision and object recognition and then creating a brand new “reading circuit”. It’s amazing, like a neural Frankenstein! (Frankenbrain?)
When we read text on paper, this reading circuit grows strong. Lovely. Alas…
When we read on digital devices: skimming (perhaps you’ve skimmed this article itself), multi-tasking (why yes, I am listening to binaural beats right now), and being fed those hits of dopamine like a deprived Oliver Twist by AI-driven algorithms… (Please Algo, may I have some more?) we are physically re-wiring that circuit once again. Not for the better. That’s where the loss of deep reading arises.
Tuning into the Signal and the Noise
This isn’t to be all doom and gloom! I actually really loved her appearance on both the ABC docuseries and “Global Roaming”, a podcast on ABC Listen. Wolf’s infectious enthusiasm is once again at play. This time with a full 30 minutes to dedicate purely to the “reading brain”. (My interest-based nervous system loved it!)
Of course, I can’t progress without mentioning the actual dynamic between the hosts and their guest. Wolf is balanced by Geraldine Doogue’s healthy dose of cynicism, and dear Hamish as the man in the middle. It made for quite an entertaining listen!
The matter at hand – the matter of facts, if I may – is that skimming is causing a physical toll. We’re not using our deep-reading circuit, and can’t process nuance, irony, or complex truths. This is where we become the targets of algorithmic mis- and dis-information. We’re merely reacting to headlines rather than analysing the deep text itself.
In fact, in a moment of meta-irony, I was considering giving this article a clickbait-y title, just to see how flagrant a response it may elicit!
Echo Chambers and Algorithmic Control
The other two “Global Roaming” episodes, addressing MacDonald’s remaining “Matter of Facts” episodes focus on Echo Chambers, Geopolitics, and Corporate (Algorithmic) Control! Fun stuff. What a world we live in.
We gravitate towards those quick dopamine hits, the polarising simple narratives. Complex global truths are on the back-burner. Then, double whammy, Big Tech designs those interfaces specifically to keep us skimming and scrolling, once again impacting democratic dialogue and information ethics.
Dear reader, I don’t wish to be alarmist. I’ll pop my Tara Rose-coloured glasses back on, and channel Wolf herself… Hope. Hope and a reclamation. Of that deep reading.
Bringing Humanity Back to the Classroom
Let’s apply it to the classroom:
We advocate for balance! (So much easier said than done.) Keep those tactile, hands-on experiences alive! Get out the physical dictionaries, the old-school page-turning books (with their glorious book-smell), and encourage deep independent reading.
Emphasise building a “bi-literate” brain. That is, teaching the students how to navigate this ever-changing, ever-evolving digital world efficiently… without sacrificing their capacity for that deep, slow, reflective thought.
But for now, let’s take it “Book to the Future.” Close your laptop lid, step away from the computer, put down that phone, and channel Professor Wolf herself. Find the joy and enthusiasm in literature you once loved. I’ll do it too.
Where we’re going we don’t need roads. (But I will need a luck dragon.)