Techno advances are making us stupid

“Never before were so many good books so freely available. Every child should be encouraged to use them.”

Your editorial (Irish Examiner, October 7) should be vigorously roared from the mountain-tops. The value of reading a wide variety of hard-copy books should never be underestimated, not only in terms of expanding vocabulary and building imagination, but also as a way of grounding the mind and brain against the flurry and flux of cyber-immediacy and vapid-virtualism á la the all-pervasive internet.

The shallowing out of concentration via relentless screen-watch activity is malignant as far as solid, long-term learning is concerned. Flitting, quickfire scanning and scrolling around a screen is an unhealthy way to in learn. It’s a glancing accummulation of awareness rather than indepth learning.