4 ms·
Off-topic, but I clicked this link, watched the Jackson 5 video, got lost on Wikipedia, and closed the tab before reading the article (which I was initially exc
by nickysielicki 6y ago
Off-topic, but I clicked this link, watched the Jackson 5 video, got lost on Wikipedia, and closed the tab before reading the article (which I was initially excited to read).
The problem with the internet isn't clickbait and hyperbole, it's that it's changed our attention spans.
- sfusato 6y agoRegarding attention spans, from "Avoid News. Towards a Healthy News Diet" By Rolf Dobelli [0] (top-notch article, btw): "In a 2001 study [1] two scholars in Canada showed that comprehension declines as the number of hyperlinks in a document increase. Why? Because whenever a link appears, your brain has to at least make the choice not to click, which in itself is distracting." This had me thinking if a dead simple button at the end of an article "Enable links" would have a positive effect on link heavy articles (Wikipedia type) or not. Something like a conscious action of "okay, now I'm ready to explore this further". Or, better yet, a browser add-on that will detect just the content of an article and disable its links by default. Obviously, with an enable button close by. --- [0] https://www.gwern.net/docs/culture/2010-dobelli.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/culture/2010-dobelli.pdf [1] Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains, Wired, May 2010
- hnarn 6y agoAnother problem with the Internet is that it’s made everyone really excited about getting on a soapbox to make sweeping and categorical generalizations about our zeitgeist based on nothing but highly personal experiences.
- nickysielicki 6y ago...Ouch. Fair point, though.