From the "I wish I'd said this" file

Today's quote comes from an essay by Steven Pinker in which he criticizes the ridiculous notion that internet makes people stupid:

Media critics write as if the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes, the informational equivalent of "you are what you eat." As with primitive peoples who believe that eating fierce animals will make them fierce, they assume that watching quick cuts in rock videos turns your mental life into quick cuts or that reading bullet points and Twitter postings turns your thoughts into bullet points and Twitter postings.