Questão 81

Soon after Maryanne Wolf published “Proust and the
Squid,” a history of the science and the development
of the reading brain from antiquity to the twenty-first
century, she began to receive letters from readers.
[5] Hundreds of them. While the backgrounds of the
writers varied, a theme began to emerge: the more
reading moved online, the less students seemed to
understand.

There were the architects who wrote to her about
[10] students who relied so heavily on ready digital
information that they were unprepared to address
basic problems on-site. There were the neurosurgeons
who worried about the “cut-and-paste chart mentality”
that their students exhibited, missing crucial details
[15] because they failed to delve deeply enough into any
one case. And there were, of course, the English
teachers who lamented that no one wanted to read
Henry James anymore.

As the letters continued to pour in, Wolf experienced a
[20] growing realization: reading had changed profoundly.
She called the rude awakening her “Rip van Winkle
moment,” and decided that it was important enough
to warrant another book. What was going on with
these students and professionals? Was the digital
[25] format to blame for their superficial approaches, or
was something else at work?

Certainly, as we turn to online reading, the physiology
of the reading process itself shifts; we don’t read the
same way online as we do on paper. Reading involves
[30] factors not usually acknowledged. The contrast of
pixels, the layout of the words, the concept of scrolling
versus turning a page, the physicality of a book versus
the ephemerality of a screen, the ability to hyperlink
and move from source to source within seconds online
[35] – all these variables translate into a different reading
experience.

The screen, for one, seems to encourage more
skimming behavior: when we scroll, we tend to read
faster but less deeply, as a way of coping with an
[40] overload of information. On screen, people browse
and scan to look for keywords, and to read in a less
linear, more selective fashion, instead of concentrating
more on just following the text. We become tired from
the constant need to filter out hyperlinks and possible
[45] distractions. And our eyes may grow fatigued from
the constantly shifting screens, layouts, colors, and
contrasts, so the reading approach needs to adjust,
taking mental and physical energy. __________.

“As children move more toward an immersion in digital
[50] media, we have to figure out ways to read deeply in
this new environment”, said Wolf. She has decided
that, despite all her training in deep reading, she, too,
needs some outside help. To finish her book, she has
ensconced herself in a small village in France with
[55] shaky mobile reception and shakier Internet. Faced
with the endless distraction of the digital world, she
has chosen to tune out just a bit of it. She’s not going
backward; she’s merely adapting.

Adapted from: https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/being-a-better-online-reader

The sentence that would end paragraph 5 is