{"id":18467,"date":"2014-04-08T05:55:03","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T09:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=18467"},"modified":"2014-04-07T19:33:34","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T23:33:34","slug":"does-the-internet-degrade-our-ability-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/04\/does-the-internet-degrade-our-ability-to-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the internet degrade our ability to read?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There is some evidence that the way we read on the internet\u2013skimming, surfing, hopping from link to link\u2013is interfering with the ability to read complex, content-rich books that require reading slowly and thoughtfully.<\/p>\n

Do you think?\u00a0 Having just finished the 1500 page unabridged Les Miserables<\/a> for free on my Kindle (an overwhelming experience that I\u2019ll blog about later), I say not necessarily.\u00a0 But still, I can see the danger.\u00a0 I wonder what the eye-bite approach would do to Bible reading.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From Michael S. Rosenwald, Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Claire Handscombe has a commitment problem online. Like a lot of Web surfers, she clicks on links posted on social networks, reads a few sentences, looks for exciting words, and then grows restless, scampering off to the next page she probably won\u2019t commit to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give it a few seconds \u2014 not even minutes \u2014 and then I\u2019m moving again,\u201d says Handscombe, a 35-year-old graduate student in creative writing at American University.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just online anymore. She finds herself behaving the same way with a novel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like your eyes are passing over the words but you\u2019re not taking in what they say,\u201d she confessed. \u201cWhen I realize what\u2019s happening, I have to go back and read again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

To cognitive neuroscientists, Handscombe\u2019s experience is the subject of great fascination and growing alarm. Humans, they warn, seem to be developing digital brains with new circuits for skimming through the torrent of information online. This alternative way of reading is competing with traditional deep reading circuitry developed over several millennia.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .(if you can)]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is some evidence that the way we read on the internet\u2013skimming, surfing, hopping from link to link\u2013is interfering with the ability to read complex, content-rich books that require reading slowly and thoughtfully. 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