Slashdot Mirror
Online Skim Reading Is Taking Over the Human Brain
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Michael S. Rosenwald reports in the Washington Post that, according to cognitive neuroscientists, humans seem to be developing digital brains with new circuits for skimming through the torrent of information online at the expense of traditional deep reading circuitry... Maryanne Wolf, one of the world's foremost experts on the study of reading, was startled last year to discover her brain was apparently adapting, too. After a day of scrolling through the Web and hundreds of e-mails, she sat down one evening to read Hermann Hesse's challenging novel The Glass Bead Game. 'I'm not kidding: I couldn't do it,' says Wolf. 'It was torture getting through the first page. I couldn't force myself to slow down so that I wasn't skimming, picking out key words, organizing my eye movements to generate the most information at the highest speed. I was so disgusted with myself.'
The brain was not designed for reading and there are no genes for reading like there are for language or vision. ... Before the Internet, the brain read mostly in linear ways — one page led to the next page, and so on. The Internet is different. With so much information, hyperlinked text, videos alongside words and interactivity everywhere, our brains form shortcuts to deal with it all — scanning, searching for key words, scrolling up and down quickly. This is nonlinear reading, and it has been documented in academic studies. ... Some researchers believe that for many people, this style of reading is beginning to invade our ability to deal with other mediums. 'We're spending so much time touching, pushing, linking, scrolling and jumping through text that when we sit down with a novel, your daily habits of jumping, clicking, linking is just ingrained in you,' says Andrew Dillon."
The brain was not designed for reading and there are no genes for reading like there are for language or vision. ... Before the Internet, the brain read mostly in linear ways — one page led to the next page, and so on. The Internet is different. With so much information, hyperlinked text, videos alongside words and interactivity everywhere, our brains form shortcuts to deal with it all — scanning, searching for key words, scrolling up and down quickly. This is nonlinear reading, and it has been documented in academic studies. ... Some researchers believe that for many people, this style of reading is beginning to invade our ability to deal with other mediums. 'We're spending so much time touching, pushing, linking, scrolling and jumping through text that when we sit down with a novel, your daily habits of jumping, clicking, linking is just ingrained in you,' says Andrew Dillon."
tl;dr
"You saved 1968." - Ms. Valerie Pringle to the crew of Apollo 8
That word doesn't mean what you seem to think it means.
He's developing brains in his fingers
I read Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" long before the Internet even existed, and it was completely fucking opaque even back then.
licet differant, aequabitur
"I took a speed reading course where you run your finger down the middle of the page and was able to read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It's about Russia."
Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen’t mttaer, the olny thnig thta’s iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy.
Accordian to an elkish un-visitry, subtle the oreo of lettuce in a wood doesn't mate, the owl-thing hates iops-rant, is that the fist and salt litter of every word in concrete poison. the rest can be a jumbojet and one is slit able to dear the extew king tut in a flurry. Sure thing!
- I choked on the red pill and now I'm stuck in limbo
God wanted us to read faster so we don't remember as much so we don't question his authority as much.
Dammit man, you made me break from reading the comments and into the Wikipedia article. Throwing my brain around like that gets confusing.
signature is pants
I caught myself skimming the wikipedia article, and suddenly realized the irony.
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Which is why the Bible is so long. I guess I don't get atheist humor.