3 ms·
Counterpoint: books work really well as evidenced by all of human development?
by efficax 7y ago
Counterpoint: books work really well as evidenced by all of human development?
- marvindanig 7y agoExactly! And I'd argue that our attention span has been shrinking ever since the scroll arrived with web. We tire out sooner when we are forced to track lines that are always moving (animating vertically)… to the effect that more than half [1] the readers don't scroll at all. Whereas with physical book transitions (page turn) happen only 'in between', line tracking is much easier and we don't have to turn the page until ready to consume the next chop of text. [1] https://slate.com/technology/2013/06/how-people-read-online-why-you-wont-finish-this-article.html https://slate.com/technology/2013/06/how-people-read-online-...
- andymatuschak 7y agoIt’s true! I tried to evoke that paradox with the Sagan quote. On a relative basis, it’s remarkable what they’ve achieved. On an absolute basis, thought, it’s surprising how unreliable the medium is (and hence all the more spectacular that they’ve achieved the results we enjoy!). If the medium achieved these results while as unreliable as it appears to be, how much more could readily be achieved?