Their words also make it a lot easier for people to justify that shift -- to convince themselves that surfing the Web is a suitable, even superior, substitute for deep reading and other forms of calm and attentive thought. In arguing that books are archaic and dispensable, Federal and Shirk provide the intellectual cover that allows thoughtful people to slip comfortably in the permanent state of abstractedness that defines the online life.

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains