Do you read me?

According to a WSJ article today (12/11/2007, B11, "Age of Innocence") there is a severe consequence to watching tv and browsing the internet to the exclusion of reading. Reading gives pause -- time to reflect -- not just react. Of course the report was from the softest of scientific sectors, sociology, but Caleb Crain is a name with a nice ring, and he did cite the National Endowment for the Arts. And what am I doing? Who is my audience here? Internet browsers or bookstore browsers? The answer is that probably no one is reading this. But the only way you can find this is on the Web. And you have to read to get here.
The other interesting correlation that Crain makes (or the report he is reading, makes) is that readers are "more likely to exercise, visit museums, ..." But the most important connection is that readers are more open-minded than non-readers. hmmmm. Now that's important in a democracy, in an election year, no less. That would make You Tube members (Watch it. If I am assuming they surf more than read, and I am the Walrus (and really enjoy You Tube), I need to read a membership profile before I speak and join hands with the shallow and closed-minded and start making opinions facts.) closed-minded and Time Magazine readers the people I want to talk to (to is okay at the end of the sentence according to the rules of New English -- Fowler has been trumped).
One other thought -- do you read me?