THE FUSE

With the digital revolution in the 1990s, cognitive research has shifted towards the impact of screens on education. Fast forward to the Covid pandemic and research began to reveal the impact they were having on reading ability. Beginning with literacy – a skill needing time for deep reading – cognitive scientists like Maryanne Wolf worried that “digital media encourages us to get as much information as we can, as fast as we can, and often while multitasking”. She noted further that “sequencing of information and memory for detail change for the worse when subjects are read on a screen”.