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The Internet is Ruining my ability to Read
05-06-2014, 01:37 AM
Am I the only person who's noticed this?
When I'm perusing posts or electronic articles, I'm prone to scanning through them to try and pick out the pertinant information, rather than chewing through it all thoroughly. With the net result being that I sometimes miss very important things because they get stopped by the unconscious filter as not being relevant to the specific topic in my mind
I've noticed that I've started doing the same thing while reading books too.... scanning through and spotting things that match my mental image of the scene, right up until I crash into something and wonder where it came from, how it got there... or when we changed locations. And then I go back to check and find it was mentioned a few paragraphs - or even a page ago and I have to jump back and start again.
It's becoming annoying.
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It's part of why I think people are ignoring traffic signs and failing to read shelf tags in stores thoroughly.
Folks are so used to filtering out advertising that they filter everything else out as well.
Speed limit signs. "This is private parking." "You must purchase three items for the sale price," etc etc.
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Huh... I got on the internet relatively later than many people. (First personal computer bought and owned in 1997) So maybe this hasn't hit me yet. Still able to pick up a novel and read it. But it has been awhile since I've read a NEW book that I haven't read before. I should go to the bookstore for some new reading material anyway. I'll make a note to check and see if this phenomenon is affecting me.
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I can confirm that this isn't affecting me. I don't read as much in print as I used to, but I still *can*, and often do.. and yes, that does include details.
The problem is that I'm a lot busier than I used to be. I don't generally have the free time to read a book... but if I get an e-book, I can sneak a chapter her and a chapter there around everything else I do.
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I doubt it's why people have trouble with signs Fox. I was seeing the store tag variant on a regular basis as far back as the late 90s when I worked retail.
Especially with street signs, I'm putting that down to simple human stupidity. Although the internet could be involved. Like that idiot that nearly swerved into me when trying to drive straight through an intersection the other night, never once looking up from her phone. *Grumble mutter Hate*
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I don't think lateness on the internet has anything to do with it. I didn't get internet until 2005.... after I finished school. I didn't get proper broadband until '07 or more. But it's gotten bad in the last 2-3 years.
And I've seen people on 'tablets' while driving. Technically, so have I - but I had it set aside as a GPS alternative because it had a bigger screen on it.
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Regarding the road signs, well, count the number of signs where you have the worst incidents, versus where it seems relatively "calm". They actually did a street - I believe in England somewhere - that they removed most of the signs, as well as making things rather more clear to drivers in terms of the street design itself. Incidents went DOWN as a result.
I'm betting a big part is just sensory overload.
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Dartz Wrote:Am I the only person who's noticed this?
It's becoming annoying.
Try browsing more with an add-blocker enabled that seems the source of your problem if you are skipping while paragraphs. :p
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
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There are people who browse without Adblock?
I suppose that they must exist, because of the random blank spots in some websites. Either that or whitespace is the new awful UX fad.
Too many things vie for for our visual attention, to be sure. Web pages can certainly encourage the behavior of paying too little attention. But there have always* been different forms of reading. When I pick up the newspaper every morning (yes, I still get dead tree), I scan for stories, and only read in-depth if I'm truly interested in the topic. But reading headlines and leads is still enough to keep me somewhat informed. Ars Technica, I read pretty much the same way. I only scan Slashdot because the summaries are a bit more clickbait than substance. The less useful the information, the less likely I am to read it well. (Corollary: avoid the HuffPo.)
But when I pick up a novel, I'm going to give it my full attention. Consciously, even. If I've gotten to that point where I start losing details, then it's time to go to sleep. Good fanfics get the same treatment. Technical articles and journals can require more than your full attention -- in which case you need to scan it, then read it and skip around, and then reread it again.
Reading is a skill, and like every skill it needs practice. So read more. Read or die. And if you're not happy with your reading, read it again until you are happy.
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Quote:vorticity wrote:
There are people who browse without Adblock?
Or NoScript, Ghostery, Priv3... Scary, ain't it?
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...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Quote:vorticity wrote:
There are people who browse without Adblock?
Yeah... they're the ones who have computers filled with malware. 
Seriously, that's the primary reason these days I run adblockers on my browsers. They want me to stop? They need to kill the malware via ad thing for good. And then cut the obtrusiveness.
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I've never had this problem reading books... but then, I don't read internet stuff that way either most of the time.
-Morgan.
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I thought I had that problem.
It turned out that I have a lower tolerance for terrible books now, that's all. My reading worked perfectly fine once I had a novel by a better author.
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I don't think that's it.
It's not just affecting novel reading either, but even skimming through forums and posts I tend to miss pretty important and otherwise 'obvious' things solely because there's an unconscious assumption being made over the next three lines in a post or so. I figure I know what the content basically is, so skip to the next....
Also I try not to browse the internet without a tinfoil hat on either. It helps a great deal. Much less cluttered web experience.
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