Reading In The Age Of Digital Distraction

While you’re reading this, are you breaking off to check your social media or perhaps Whatsapping or texting a friend?

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The temptation to have several tabs open in your browser and to focus for only short bursts of time is high in today’s fastmoving world, but what does it do to our ability to really take in information or to enjoy getting lost in a good book? Tyler Shores is a researcher in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge who spoke about digital distraction as part of the Cambridge Series at this year’s Hay Festival.

Like many who are interested in the social impact of the digital revolution, he has the first-hand experience at a technology company. At the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California he was part of Authors@ Google, a leading online lecture series, and has also worked as a director of digital textbooks, as well as working at a fully online school with Stanford University. He was also a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley where he created and taught a course on The Simpsons and Philosophy.