Yesterday, Vered from Momgrind made a comment that got me thinking. Of course, that’s not hard. The wind whistling past my ear will detour my thoughts, as long as I think it might be saying something different than it did the day before.
But if something’s bouncing about my brain without much intention of leaving, than I have to believe that there’s something there worth considering, and Vered’s comment was rattling around for a while.
She mentioned that it’s pretty natural to scan articles while reading online.
She couldn’t be more right.
When I first started doing a lot of online reading, I allowed my eyes to float over every set of syllables. Now, I swallow them as quickly as I can, as if they were the last hot waffles coming from a kitchen that’s closing in five minutes.
I can’t imagine reading a book this way.
Can you?
Really?
For me, it’s day and night. A book isn’t something to race through, it’s a first date; slow and thoughtful and considerate. The internet is like coming home and decompressing at the end of the day, after you’ve been married for twenty years:
Just the facts, Ma’am, just the facts.
When I crack a spine, I want to be lost in a story, but when I lift the lid of my laptop, I want INFORMATION, and I digest it like a hungry alligator, chewing without swallowing, bouncing from one website to the next, in some insane race with myself to see how much I can consume, and how quickly I can do it.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not condemning the behavior. I love to learn this way, and a large part of why I go online thirty-seven thousand times each day is so that I can go to sleep slightly smarter than I was when I woke up, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t sometimes get a chill wondering about the information overload my children will be facing in another ten years.
Look how much the internet’s evolved in just a few short years. This September, a good percentage of kids going off to college have no memory of life before the ubiquity of the internet. What’s it going to be like for the pre-school set now?
My hopes are sky high.
For now, I choose to believe that some major sea change is right around the corner. Our educational institutions are going to have to wake up and realize that they’re teaching in a way that was out of date back when I was sitting behind the desk making up funny limericks about my teacher.
The internet’s still in diapers, and together, we share the task of raising it. But as we shape that alternate landscape, so we shape ourselves. My children see me on the computer a lot, but I make sure that at least once a day, they also see me with an old fashioned book in my hands and a quiet smile on my face.
The internet is amazing, but we must never forget what got us here.
Writer Dad
Check out the updated post on reading online. See if you can spot the changes.
About Sean Platt
Interesting article on the same subject. The author came to a similar conclusion. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
Interesting article on the same subject. The author came to a similar conclusion. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
You are raising an interesting topic.
I often wonder if books will some day disappear. Have you seen Wall-E? It shows a future where people don’t read books anymore. Scary, but it COULD happen (just like the other scary things shown in that movie could happen).
You are raising an interesting topic.
I often wonder if books will some day disappear. Have you seen Wall-E? It shows a future where people don’t read books anymore. Scary, but it COULD happen (just like the other scary things shown in that movie could happen).
@Michael – thanks for the heads up. He said it a lot better than I did.
@Vered – Books will never disappear, for the same reason that fresh flowers will never be replaced by artificial ones. A book is simply too romantic. By the way, you do have one in you. I would’ve said the same thing a year ago. Now, I’m trying to figure out how to slow the torrent of ideas. I promise, just start writing. You don’t have to know where you’re going; I didn’t. Just write five-hundred words a day. Start tomorrow, by Thanksgiving, you’ll have sixty-four thousand words to work on. It might be terrible, mine sure was, but you’ll have done it, and you’ll probably want to keep going.
@Michael – thanks for the heads up. He said it a lot better than I did.
@Vered – Books will never disappear, for the same reason that fresh flowers will never be replaced by artificial ones. A book is simply too romantic. By the way, you do have one in you. I would’ve said the same thing a year ago. Now, I’m trying to figure out how to slow the torrent of ideas. I promise, just start writing. You don’t have to know where you’re going; I didn’t. Just write five-hundred words a day. Start tomorrow, by Thanksgiving, you’ll have sixty-four thousand words to work on. It might be terrible, mine sure was, but you’ll have done it, and you’ll probably want to keep going.
Swallowing without chewing. This one got me thinking, and like you, once a thought starts rattling around it generally has to come out, and usually in written form. If you swallow without chewing, you don’t actually taste your food. Down it goes for sustenance only. Zipping through posts though…I think I chew, because I definitely get the flavour, I just chew quickly without savouring the information. I chew nice and slowly in two instances. One is, for sure, a book. A good book is like lingering over a steak, grilled tomato, crusty roll, fine wine, dinner. This cannot be rushed! The other instance is the policies and procedures I have to read for work. Here, I’m chewing slowly because the meat is way too tough to go quickly or shovel down my gullet. It goes without saying, I MUCH prefer the steak and wine book!
Swallowing without chewing. This one got me thinking, and like you, once a thought starts rattling around it generally has to come out, and usually in written form. If you swallow without chewing, you don’t actually taste your food. Down it goes for sustenance only. Zipping through posts though…I think I chew, because I definitely get the flavour, I just chew quickly without savouring the information. I chew nice and slowly in two instances. One is, for sure, a book. A good book is like lingering over a steak, grilled tomato, crusty roll, fine wine, dinner. This cannot be rushed! The other instance is the policies and procedures I have to read for work. Here, I’m chewing slowly because the meat is way too tough to go quickly or shovel down my gullet. It goes without saying, I MUCH prefer the steak and wine book!
If it’s for work, then it’s best just to throw it in the blender, hit puree, dump it in a glass, then hold your nose and swallow.
If it’s for work, then it’s best just to throw it in the blender, hit puree, dump it in a glass, then hold your nose and swallow.
I scanned your article. I think the thing that got me to read the main idea of it was the headlines. I’m constantly trying to improve the amount of times I use them so that I can maximize my reader audience.
Great work.
Brad Blogging.com – Personal Blog Tips And Blog Helps last blog post..Google Pagerank Update – July 26 – 27th 2008
I scanned your article. I think the thing that got me to read the main idea of it was the headlines. I’m constantly trying to improve the amount of times I use them so that I can maximize my reader audience.
Great work.
Brad Blogging.com – Personal Blog Tips And Blog Helps last blog post..Google Pagerank Update – July 26 – 27th 2008
Wow. Those were the most encouraging words anyone has ever said to me, at least when it comes to writing.
Thank you.
Vereds last blog post..Powerful Men, Half-Naked Women (Best Shot Monday)
Wow. Those were the most encouraging words anyone has ever said to me, at least when it comes to writing.
Thank you.
Vereds last blog post..Powerful Men, Half-Naked Women (Best Shot Monday)
That’s why I tend to keep my posts quite short (usually around 250 words and almost never more than 500). I get bored super quickly reading articles online, so I try to provide people with a brief but fulfilling experience on my blog.
And yes, I have to admit that I skimmed the last half of your post, even though it was very interesting – I’m just too Tigger-ish for long reading online.
As for books, I can sit down and devour a book in a few hours or (like the last book I read) savour scene by scene over several weeks.
Alex Fayles last blog post..Expanding Tastes
That’s why I tend to keep my posts quite short (usually around 250 words and almost never more than 500). I get bored super quickly reading articles online, so I try to provide people with a brief but fulfilling experience on my blog.
And yes, I have to admit that I skimmed the last half of your post, even though it was very interesting – I’m just too Tigger-ish for long reading online.
As for books, I can sit down and devour a book in a few hours or (like the last book I read) savour scene by scene over several weeks.
Alex Fayles last blog post..Expanding Tastes
Sadly, although I was an avid book reader growing up, I find that I read fewer and fewer books as the internet grows bigger.
I also find, that when I do take the time to sit down with a book, that I do carry over my bad internet habit of skimming instead of slowly digesting. I am not happy with myself about that.
Interesting thoughts!
Sarah @ Going Bananas Blogs last blog post..When Heat Was Not My Friend
Sadly, although I was an avid book reader growing up, I find that I read fewer and fewer books as the internet grows bigger.
I also find, that when I do take the time to sit down with a book, that I do carry over my bad internet habit of skimming instead of slowly digesting. I am not happy with myself about that.
Interesting thoughts!
Sarah @ Going Bananas Blogs last blog post..When Heat Was Not My Friend