NY Times Article: "Online, R U Really Reading?"

Motoko Rich, writing in the New York Times on July 27 asks “Online, R U Really Reading?” In his article, Rich discusses our current "passionate debate about just what it means to read in the digital age. The discussion is playing out among educational policy makers and reading experts around the world, and within groups like the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books. But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager... who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write." What do you think?