But we can’t make split-second decisions and think deeply at the same time—the two acts use different and competing brain regions. Every decision, no matter how tiny or subconscious, pulls our attention away from what we are reading. This in turn makes it harder to absorb the content of what we’re reading—let alone to think about it critically, or remember it later. Second, unlike a dog barking in the background, online distractions are embedded in what we’re trying to focus on.
