R U Really Reading?

The article "R U Really Reading" raises a few good points. Is the internet era the same or even better than one with only just plain traditional texts. Most kids nowadays choose the internet more than reading books. That doesn't necessarily mean there not reading but it is believed that there may be shorter attention spans due to the continued use of internet. Recent study shows the use of internet in kids is no at 1 hour and 44 minutes in 2004 as apposed to just 45 minutes in 1999. Is the increase good or bad? I believe it to be just "the way of the future." I find internet as a gateway to the world, with everything right at your finger tips, use it the right way and you may learn a thing or two. If you just log on to your computer and use things such as instant messenger all the time, that has minimal reading comprehension involved and you wont really gain much from doing so. However, “What we are losing in this country and presumably around the world is the sustained, focused, linear attention developed by reading. Ones mind can be all over the place on the internet, choosing certain parts of an article to read as apposed to a full beginning middle and end of a book. Books bring a reader into a whole knew light sharing personal views and seeing the world from a whole new perspective, as internet uses blogs and such to broaden the mind of the reader but not exactly shed new light... I know less kids choose books than adults, but hey you never know what to expect in this kind of world we live in today!