Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?

I read an article recently that forewarned that the proliferation of media such as the Internet has changed our reading capacity, thus our thinking capacity. Is Google Making Us Stupid?

The author of this article describes the change in his reading processes from reading deeply to only skimming materials. He writes:

When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances—literary types, most of them—many say they’re having similar experiences. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing. Some of the bloggers I follow have also begun mentioning the phenomenon. Scott Karp who writes a blog about media recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader,” he wrote. “What happened?” He speculates on the answer: “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?”

I can see this in my library sometimes. I have patrons that specifically request the short reads and I had one balk when I suggested a book of over three hundred pages. I think one reason that graphic novels are so popular with teens is that the way teens think is differently. They think in short, visual bursts, not in long methodical passages. What does this mean for libraries in the future? I can't say exactly, I think that libraries will have to continue to adapt and change for anything, even if people's way of reading dramatically shifts.