Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens

Chapter 6The Apps Explosion: What's in the Store?

To cite the old Chinese proverb, “We live in interesting times.” One indicator: just pause from reading this book for a moment and reflect on the recently invented digital devices you have close at hand. Open up your smartphone or tablet and observe a cornucopia of entertainment and lifestyle apps—games, photography, music, cooking, sports—as well as social ones that link you to friends, family, and colleagues across the globe, not to mention apps for messaging anyone, anytime. Most of us have instant access to the world's information via powerful, personalized search engines that fit in our pockets. Later in the book we talk to experts who now wonder about the burdens of being always connected. ...