Changing the Subject is not only a diagnosis of distraction but a prescription for it — an absorbing narrative to get lost in for a time, even as our inboxes and Twitter feeds beg for our attention.
Unlike many of the complaints that have been lodged against the Internet, there is no shouting in Birkerts’s thoughtful indictment. Birkerts is worried, but he is not nervous. He is vexed, but he is not outraged.
Although I too have committed much of my life to literature, this does seem a rather reductive vision of human destiny. More pertinently, I doubt it will reduce Internet use by a single click.
