“WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE READERS WE ONCE WERE?"

MARYANNE WOLF AND CONTEMPORARY READING

Abstract

This study discusses the impact of digital culture on the reading brain based on Maryanne Wolf’s contributions to the field. Given the information overload and abundance of content in digital environments, it investigates the transformations that foster fragmented and superficial reading, compromising cognitive abilities such as sustained attention, concentration, and deep reading. The theoretical framework articulates contributions from contemporary authors like Maryanne Wolf and Nicholas Carr, particularly regarding the effects of neuroplasticity and the limits of cognitive processing amid the intensive use of digital technologies. This discussion is linked to the concept of "reading fatigue," a notion still consolidating within reading studies and Information Science. Methodologically, this is a bibliographic research based on an interpretive thematic synthesis of Maryanne Wolf's book Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2019). The study concludes that the digital ecosystem imposes a higher cognitive cost on reading dense texts and favors attentional dispersion, which may diminish readers' critical competence. However, Wolf highlights the need for coexistence between digital reading practices and the development of deep reading, which remains fundamental to the cultivation of critical thinking.