Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World

by Maryanne Wolf

Levitin claims that children can become so chronically accustomed to a continuous stream of competitors for their attention that their brains are for all purposes being bathed in hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, the hormones more commonly associated with fight, flight, and stress. They are only three years old, or four, or sometimes even two and younger—but they are first passively receiving and then, ever so gradually, actively requiring the levels of stimulation of much older children on a regular basis. As Levitin discusses, when children and youth are surrounded with this constant level of novel, sensory stimulation, they are being projected into a continuously hyperattentive state. He suggests that “multitasking creates a dopamine-addiction feedback9 loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation.”