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Odd question, but do you read as much literature as when you were young? There seems to be a fairly strong correlation between reading literature/fiction and co

Odd question, but do you read as much literature as when you were young? There seems to be a fairly strong correlation between reading literature/fiction and concentration in studies (and no, I don't have the sources on hand, I heard mention of them on YouTube, of all places.. Boo, I know. Improper citation, but what are you gonna do. Sometimes I listen to lectures when I work). I, personally, had gotten into the habit of reading technical papers all of the time and foregoing literature and fiction on the basis of "well, what good is that doing me?!" and had noticed that my focus had been slipping. Now, this could be anecdotal or I could have just needed the down time but, I started reading some scifi (is that what Hitchhiker's Guide and John Dies is?) again and my concentration seems to have gotten slowly better.... could also just be time away from the screen. Though I do read on a Kindle Paperwhite, so who knows.

zerostar07 8y ago
I m not sure if it s an effect of age, but i can barely watch a movie. I believe however its a consequence of technology that ‘just works: we demand (re-)solutions now and are impatient.
tomjakubowski 8y ago
as another totally useless data point, I read fiction and non-fiction books, magazines, and newspapers, constantly when growing up, but since I was about 15 or 16 I've had serious issues with concentration + attention. The reading tapered off into my 20s along with that. I strongly believe that I am getting dumber as I age.
AdamM12 8y ago
I'm glad I found someone who mentioned this as I was going to. I've spent the first month and a half of my summer reading books (4 down, which is more than I've read in the past decade and a half combined) and I definitely feel as though it has helped me focus more. I've been more disciplined about really "reading aloud" the words in my head as opposed to when I was younger I kinda just skimmed and didn't really take in what I was saying. Edit: should say outside of assigned readings for school work. Which tend to lean technical and are never fully read from cover to cover.
commandlinefan 8y ago
Interesting - you're right, I used to read a lot when I was younger. I'm not sure I read what everybody would necessarily call "literature" - mostly scifi and fantasy novels - but I did read quite a bit more fiction then than I have in the past 20 years or so. Now when I read, it's almost always a programming book of some sort.

zerostar07 8y ago

I m not sure if it s an effect of age, but i can barely watch a movie. I believe however its a consequence of technology that ‘just works: we demand (re-)solutions now and are impatient.

tomjakubowski 8y ago

as another totally useless data point, I read fiction and non-fiction books, magazines, and newspapers, constantly when growing up, but since I was about 15 or 16 I've had serious issues with concentration + attention. The reading tapered off into my 20s along with that. I strongly believe that I am getting dumber as I age.

AdamM12 8y ago

I'm glad I found someone who mentioned this as I was going to. I've spent the first month and a half of my summer reading books (4 down, which is more than I've read in the past decade and a half combined) and I definitely feel as though it has helped me focus more. I've been more disciplined about really "reading aloud" the words in my head as opposed to when I was younger I kinda just skimmed and didn't really take in what I was saying. Edit: should say outside of assigned readings for school work. Which tend to lean technical and are never fully read from cover to cover.

commandlinefan 8y ago

Interesting - you're right, I used to read a lot when I was younger. I'm not sure I read what everybody would necessarily call "literature" - mostly scifi and fantasy novels - but I did read quite a bit more fiction then than I have in the past 20 years or so. Now when I read, it's almost always a programming book of some sort.