The reason the internet can hook us more than a book is that the internet responds to us. If we get tired, we can dumb down our surfing, but dumbing down what you're reading is harder.
Dumbing down doesn't mean "philosophy versus Call of Duty". It just means what's intuitive versus what takes conscious effort. Heck, Call of Duty could demand conscious effort.
You can't? I find it to be a world of difference between reading a scientific reports and a youth novel for instance. Or some kind of classical literature compared to a comic book.
You can, but not in the moment. You have to pick up a different book to do that and most people don't read more than one book concurrently. So you just put the book down and do something else.
Whereas on the internet, you can very quickly flip to comment threads if you get tired of reading articles.
Yes I agree, that's what too often happen to me. Plus I can read a phone without using any hands. But op talked about dumbing down the reading and if they meant the medium, well there's lots of things you can read on the internet as well.
You're right :) what I mean is that the internet demands a couple of keystrokes or a click to change content. A book may require getting up from my chair, or worse, going to a store and waiting a couple of days for them to get the book I want.