Slashdot Mirror
How the Internet Changed the Way We Read (dailydot.com)
An anonymous reader writes: UC Literature Professor Jackson Bliss puts into words something many of you have probably experienced: the evolution of the internet and mobile devices has changed how we read. "The truth is that most of us read continuously in a perpetual stream of incestuous words, but instead of reading novels, book reviews, or newspapers like we used to in the ancien régime, we now read text messages, social media, and bite-sized entries about our protean cultural history on Wikipedia."
Bliss continues, "In the great epistemic galaxy of words, we have become both reading junkies and also professional text skimmers. ... Reading has become a relentless exercise in self-validation, which is why we get impatient when writers don't come out and simply tell us what they're arguing. ... Content—whether thought-provoking, regurgitated, or analytically superficial, impeccably-researched, politically doctrinaire, or grammatically atrocious—now occupies the same cultural space, the same screen space, and the same mental space in the public imagination. After awhile, we just stop keeping track of what's legitimately good because it takes too much energy to separate the crème from the foam."
Bliss continues, "In the great epistemic galaxy of words, we have become both reading junkies and also professional text skimmers. ... Reading has become a relentless exercise in self-validation, which is why we get impatient when writers don't come out and simply tell us what they're arguing. ... Content—whether thought-provoking, regurgitated, or analytically superficial, impeccably-researched, politically doctrinaire, or grammatically atrocious—now occupies the same cultural space, the same screen space, and the same mental space in the public imagination. After awhile, we just stop keeping track of what's legitimately good because it takes too much energy to separate the crème from the foam."
tl;dr
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Yeah, just checkout this introductory paragraph:
Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me,
As plurdled gabbleblotchits,
On a lurgid bee,
That mordiously hath blurted out,
Its earted jurtles,
Into a rancid festering confectious organ squealer.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
I skimmed it and you're right. Sweeping generalizations tossed in a word salad.
I just spent 6 hours reading Heinlein on e ink, so I humored him. Meanwhile, the same has been said in fewer, clearer words for at least 5 years now, with predictions of same around the time facebook, texting, and news aggregators went mainstream. Each time, that is.
Take old news and wrap it in New paper.
I literally did not understand what he was saying (the the quoted summary). I don't have the patience to decode what he's trying to say in this convoluted mess of word salad. Why doesn't he just come out and state his thesis? Maybe I'll just look him up on wikipedia.
TL;DR: Kids these days.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
most of us read continuously in a perpetual stream of incestuous words
Remember kids, that's where portmanteau words come from.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
This is not a new phenomenon. I remember a lawyer giving me her newspaper at the courthouse when I was 8 or 9. "
Wait . . . . what?
A minor correction: A piece of writing might be:
- funny
- insightful
- informative
- offtopic
- flamebait
- normal
- troll
- redundant
- interesting
- overrated
- underrated