There has been a lot of discussion about the article written by Nicholas Carr concerning how the internet is changing the way we think and absorb information – some positive, some particularly negative. Without any actual scientific studies, the evidence for Carr’s claims is purely anecdotal at this stage however it is an anecdote that many people can relate to. There is too much information. We are suffering from overload. We can’t take everything in, so when we are online we skim over things without ever paying proper attention to what we are reading. Carr’s argument is that this could be changing the way the human mind actually works.
Whether or not this is a real issue is still a matter of conjecture. However, there is a little bit of panic-mongering involved in the article which makes for interesting reading, but which may not relate to everyone. Most people who know me know that I am a bookworm. I keep a book blog to document everything I read, and my greatest form of relaxation at the end of the day after being online from early morning, is to sit down and get lost in a book. I can do it for hours (and often do). And it isn’t just me. The community of booklovers online is enormous, and none of us find it that difficult to focus on the pages in front of us, even if the book is hundreds of pages long. Everyone within that community would defy any suggestion that they no longer have the ability to take in and think deeply about books. Or perhaps the neural changes haven’t affected us yet.
However, I do feel that there is some truth in the speculation when it comes to the online world. Many people claim they “can’t read on a screen”. I suspect this is partly to do with the glare, and partly to do with the endless distractions. When you have email, Twitter, IM, hyperlinks, alerts and advertising all clamouring for your attention, it is quite difficult to focus on the words you are trying to take in. Many people I have spoken to (and I include myself in this), still resort to printing things out that they need to read from top to bottom. It may seem archaic, but it is just one solution to the “skimming” problem that Carr identifies. There are others.
Carr also suggests that the attention diffusion undermines our ability to think deeply about any information we receive. To a point I agree – it is difficult to think deeply at the time, but our brains don’t just stop when we move away from our monitors. I regularly mull over things that I have read, go back and either print them, re-read them or sum up a bit of willpower (which isn’t actually that difficult when you do put your mind to it) and read an article from top to bottom online. Yes, it is more difficult, but it creates a need to exercise your brain in different ways.
Nevertheless, the anecdotally supported trend that we are struggling to actually read and digest what we find online does have a knock on effect if you are using the internet to manage your reputation or market yourself, and this is a concern I hear often – “I have some really great information, but no-one is reading it”. So, my suggestion is to think laterally. Rather than lamenting over the changes, adjust what you do to fit in with those changes. Deliver a taster in a form that people will read, and then if they do want to dig further, provide the option of the full article. Make things printer friendly. Deliver them in manageable chunks over a period of time. Or, learn to be a bit more pithy with your words, or ensure the crux of your argument appears early on in the article. Just because people may have developed short attention spans doesn’t mean the information you deliver is going to be ignored.
And if it’s really good – why not write a book? There is an unbelievably large number of people out there who will happily sit down and get immersed in it. And if you are still convinced by Mr Carr, just ask and I will point you to them.
Thank you to abstrato for the image
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