Adding a personal touch: I have three best friends, all male, all very net-savvy.

One reads the classics, for joy. Not to say he did because some cute librarian might show up one night at the bar. Because he wants to.

The second refuses to read books out of principle. Seriously. To spite me and friend #1, he wears shirts that say “Too many books, too little time.” He recently read his first book since college, non-fiction, because he met the writer and was impressed with him.

The third refuses to read anything printed. But anything else is fair game.

All three are eloquent, well-read, super successful in their fields. They are voracious readers of sports news, facebook, music blogs. The classic reader reads New York Times every day. The book-hater reads ESPN.com and CNN.com about four to five times every day. The third will read anything forwarded to him by the first two, plus his own web visits and grad school studies.

I’m the bogey, the outsider, who reads and writes, reads about writing, writes about reading.

And let me say this – all four of us are extraordinarily creative, sharp folks. Be it on each other’s facebook walls or IM windows, we are sincerely funny, educated; we make connections, recommendations; compose arguments and break each other down…sometimes ruthlessly.

You and Thompson could not be more right – this generation’s reading and writing habits, no matter how they manifest themselves, are netting out a level of engaged minds unlike any before in history.