Does the Internet Make You Smarter? (online.wsj.com)

I think we can also question whether the computer makes you smarter. IMHO, computer or internet are tools. It's up to the owner of the tool to use it.

<i>Reading is an unnatural act; we are no more evolved to read books than we are to use computers.</i>

That assertion caused me to frantically control-W. In how many ways is it, alone, bankrupt? What are we "evolved to" do? How unnatural were the pre-Sumerians? Why do we gladly immerse ourselves in the unknown seeking, as we are so inclined to do, new patterns?

Clay Shirky is the amateur he starts out with complaints about.