You can’t become a good writer by watching YouTube, texting and e-mailing a bunch of abbreviations.
— Marcia Blondel, a teacher of English at Woodside High School in California, as quoted in “Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction,” one in a series of articles The New York Times is publishing in order to explore how “a deluge of data can affect the way people think and behave.” The author of the article, Matt Richtel, summarizes the strain on students’ attention as an overabundance of choices: “Computer or homework? Immediate gratification or investing in the future?”
