I love the Internet.
It's a wonderful resource to learn more about current events, listen to new music, keep in touch with friends, read satirical articles and find just about any type of information needed. I spend a great deal of my day bouncing between all sorts of websites in order to find captivating information.
However, this use has come at a cost. In the last year or two, I've noticed my ability to read deeply from longer, more complicated works has drastically decreased. When I sit down with a book, I become fidgety and drowsy, easily distracted by the most minute background noise.
I would read voraciously when I was younger, tearing through novel after novel in the joy of literature. And then, I started spending more and more time online. While I would (and still do) read quite a bit online, I have frittered away my fair share of minutes habitually checking my Facebook and email. And the reading I did do was cursory. I would skim through the article, try to get the main point, and then move to the next tab I had open. In short, I wasn't taking the painstaking care I once did to fully grasp the concepts the author was trying to convey.
I've found plenty of people online who have told a story similar to mine: former bookworms trading the placid sheets of dead trees for the high-intensity computer screen, many of them regretting their lost ability to focus deeply.
While the science on this is far from conclusive, some studies have intriguing results. In a New York Times article on how attached some have become to technology, they cite scientists arguing that “our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information … [and] heavy multi-taskers … have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information.”
While there are some people that may claim an ability to juggle multiple tasks without any loss of retention or risk of distraction, the evidence shows otherwise. And this susceptibility to distraction most likely has a hand in people's reading habits, which doesn't bode well for pieces of writing that call for more in-depth engagement.
In 2008, Nicholas Carr wrote an article for The Atlantic, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” that resulted in an explosion of discussion surrounding this topic. He argues that the Internet is changing the way we process information, making us skim the surface of a given body of text instead of engaging with the details.
Once again, it's important to note that the science in this field is fairly scant. So, taking any drastic lessons to heart from an argument like this would be going overboard.
However, what can be taken from this argument is the exhortation to read deeply more often. The Internet has numerous benefits, and I'm not saying that it isn't an extraordinarily useful tool.
But reading detailed works also has countless benefits, ones that, if you're like most college students, you're not taking much advantage of. Engaging with complex arguments and ideas is something that is especially important in college, where we're supposed to be training for our future careers.
So set aside some time to spend alone with a book. Supplement the Internet's predilection for breadth with a book's knack for depth. You may very well find the time well spent; I know I certainly have.
Besides, the Internet isn't going anywhere soon.
Reach the columnist at tjgreene@asu.edu
