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Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

theparisreview.org

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Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#81

Post by rgifford »

krishna2 wrote: post #52
everythingswan wrote: post #10

I've come to love books intensely. Not only because I enjoy learning--before I read books, I found blogs to be great educators. I love books because they create time and space to be alone with a thought. It gives me time to consider things that I normally have no space for. I remember Seth Godin saying once that every business book can be summarized in just a few pages but the book itself is a story. I think it goes…

I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you.

> I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you.

You can literally watch a video at any pace you want.

I don't get romanticism around books and I can't help but eye roll when someone a) gushes about reading or b) waxes poetic about the past.

We have access to nearly every book, article, paper, video, song, etc. ever written or recorded within seconds. When I want to learn, the most efficient path is usually not through a single author. Why should it be? Why is it bad if we predominantly piece together information through multimedia? I don't get this article or the "reading club" mentality at all. Though I often hear it come out at parties as virtue signal.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#82

Post by alphagrep12345 »

burtonator wrote: post #28

I'm actually working on an app specifically to address this problem. https://getpolarized.io/ It builds on the idea of 'bookmarks' and we have a new take on them called 'pagemarks' which is basically a box that spans multiple pages. This way you can keep track of the parts of the book you've read and jump around. I like reading multiple textbooks, articles, etc and go back and forth often. This allows me to easily su…

I wanted to make something like this for a long time. Thanks.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#83

Post by LamaOfRuin »

rgifford wrote: post #81
krishna2 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you.

> I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you. You can literally watch a video at any pace you want. I don't get romanticism around books and I can't help but eye roll when someone a) gushes about reading or b) waxes poetic about…

You need to read some literature. Information is not knowledge or understanding.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#84

Post by Retra »

sullyj3 wrote: post #74
chki wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've recently been shown a lot of ads for a service called "blinkist" where the idea is to provide short summaries of non-fiction books and I think your comment captures why that is a very bad idea. Reading and capturing an idea takes time; it can't be properly substituted by a few minutes of "listening to crucial insights from leading thinkers while you’re on the go." Their business model is in a way the complete op…

I wonder whether blinkist agrees with, but does it anyway because people want it.

Some people will want something just because you're trying to sell it to them though.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#85

Post by procinct »

kccqzy wrote: post #76
procinct wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s very interesting to me that you read without hearing a voice in your head reading each word. I tried to read your comment without requiring the voice in my head but I wasn’t able to do so. Can you elaborate a little more on what reading is like for you with no voice in your head?

Speed reading is basically reading without hearing a voice (subvocalization). I can do it but personally find it more draining and less enjoyable than regular reading. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocalization#Comparison_to_...

That's a really interesting link, thanks for that. The parent comment made it sound as if this was their normal method of reading which is pretty fascinating. I wonder how common it is.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#86

Post by OnlyLys »

krishna2 wrote: post #52
everythingswan wrote: post #10

I've come to love books intensely. Not only because I enjoy learning--before I read books, I found blogs to be great educators. I love books because they create time and space to be alone with a thought. It gives me time to consider things that I normally have no space for. I remember Seth Godin saying once that every business book can be summarized in just a few pages but the book itself is a story. I think it goes…

I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you.

I agree with this. I've found that for myself, reading is much more effective because everything has to go through my inner monologue first, whereas videos circumvent that.

My inner monologue is where I really begin to understand / remember / question concepts.

That's also why I like writing difficult concepts down, because then I will be forced to put it through my inner monologue once more.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#87

Post by int_19h »

m463 wrote: post #70
int_19h wrote: post #38

For me, eInk readers, and especially smartphones, boosted the amounts I've read (which were substantial to begin with). For eInk, it was mostly because I could take it to more places, stuffed with many books. When you can get through a book in 2-3 days, a 2-week vacation needs quite a few! But smartphones were the real gift. Now I have all my books right there in my pocket whenever I go, so in any situation where I h…

Being able to change the font size, the screen brightness and to a lesser extent hue (bluish amber) has led to the death of physical books for me. That and a kickstand phone case.

Oh yes, I totally forgot about that part for low-light reading. Blue light filters are awesome when properly done.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#88

Post by rgifford »

LamaOfRuin wrote: post #83
rgifford wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you. You can literally watch a video at any pace you want. I don't get romanticism around books and I can't help but eye roll when someone a) gushes about reading or b) waxes poetic about…

You need to read some literature. Information is not knowledge or understanding.

Funny you say that, I was an English major for a brief while in college. I switched to a creative writing minor before the end of my first year.

For whatever it was my English professors had, it was my creative writing professors with real acclaim and ability.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#90

Post by gshubert17 »

davidmr wrote: post #27
gdubs wrote: post #11

My wife and I recently embarked on the 'Great Books' list from "How to read a Book" [1]. It's a nice contrast to the more scattershot reading that happens online. If you're interested in how technology might cause self-interruptions that make things like sitting down with a book more difficult, I recommend checking out "The Distracted Mind". [2] 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book 2: http://mitpress.m…

I spent a year at a “Great Books” college whose program Adler helped found. It was a really amazing luxury to be able to spend so much time on it (I left after freshman year, so I only got through the Greeks). Ultimately, St John’s generates a lot of lawyers and humanities grad students, but not a whole lot else without extra pre-grad school to school to get some of the STEM prereqs out of the way. I love that the sc…

I attended St. John's College's Graduate Institute, spending four summers (8 weeks each) reading and discussing a shorter version of the undergraduate reading list, and took an M.A. degree in the Liberal Arts thirty years after my Computer Science degree.

It was well worth it for me, at age 54, and for participants who were retirement age. At 40 you may be feel less smart than when you were younger, but you're very likely more mature and a better reader.

St. John's offers week-long Summer Classics sessions, which convey a lot of the same experiences of reading and discussion:

https://www.sjc.edu/santa-fe/programs/summer-classics

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