Reddit mentions of The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age

The "new" textbook is, in some ways, a very double-edged sword. It offers a lot of benefits, but at times I'm afraid it does so at the expense of real growth in thinking on the part of my students. It lets them get to the quick of the issue faster, but I worry that by removing the hurdles of learning to analyze and parse text critically (who needs to do that? There's a commentary or a link that will just tell me the 'answer'...), we do them a great disservice. Sven Birkerts notes as much in The Gutenberg Elegies. He even addresses the Perseus Project directly as a point of concern. The tools are definitely a boon for those individuals advanced enough in their learning to use them judiciously, but what happens when they become a quick end-around for actually mastering basic material? I'm a huge fan of the digital humanities, but at times I think we're rushing forward for the sake of being able to do so and without consideration for what sacrifices we make in order to obtain our gains. All very interesting questions though. That's for sure.