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Does this imply that people who read more might end up having less mental agility earlier on in life? The results seem scary. With how much information people

by com2kid 13y ago

Does this imply that people who read more might end up having less mental agility earlier on in life? The results seem scary. With how much information people take in now days (media is everywhere!), might mental agility be slowing down at an even earlier and earlier age?

adventured 13y ago
Just some fun speculation - perhaps it means on average we're consuming the same amount of data no matter what we do (assuming full mental cognition; and with a +/- ~25% variance depending on intensity of data consumption). So the hard-drive fills up regardless, with our choice being what the data consists of.
- amagumori 13y ago
  i'd guess that the phenomenon of "mental fatigue" is a natural limiter on the amount of information you can retain and process. with easy-to-process things like light novels, you can read them all day, but try reading K&R C for more than 4 hours without your eyes glazing over.
- com2kid 13y ago
  I think rate of data consumption can vary. For example, I consume a lot more information reading than if I am watching a TV sitcom. (Ignoring the multimedia aspects of TV, the actual amount of information acquired, and then processed, is going to be higher reading, for example, discussions on hacker news)
omegaworks 13y ago
Personal anecdote time: I feel my cognitive abilities enhanced by reading. When you're paying attention to how the author conveys ideas, puts thought into words, you can subconsciously retain that structure and put it to use for your own purposes. After going without reading any novels for an entire semester (college life without humanities classes ugh) and then voraciously consuming Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon I tangibly felt my vocabulary and capacity for articulated thought come easier.
- xyzzy123 13y ago
  One of the odd pleasures of reading for me is noticing how hard it is not to mimic the style of novels I'm reading Say, after reading Anthony Burgess, I'll use more $5 words than after I've just read a Kurt Vonnegut novel. Also, how painful it is to write in what passes for academic or business formal style.

by com2kid 13y ago

adventured 13y ago

Just some fun speculation - perhaps it means on average we're consuming the same amount of data no matter what we do (assuming full mental cognition; and with a +/- ~25% variance depending on intensity of data consumption). So the hard-drive fills up regardless, with our choice being what the data consists of.

amagumori 13y ago
i'd guess that the phenomenon of "mental fatigue" is a natural limiter on the amount of information you can retain and process. with easy-to-process things like light novels, you can read them all day, but try reading K&R C for more than 4 hours without your eyes glazing over.
com2kid 13y ago
I think rate of data consumption can vary. For example, I consume a lot more information reading than if I am watching a TV sitcom. (Ignoring the multimedia aspects of TV, the actual amount of information acquired, and then processed, is going to be higher reading, for example, discussions on hacker news)

omegaworks 13y ago

Personal anecdote time: I feel my cognitive abilities enhanced by reading. When you're paying attention to how the author conveys ideas, puts thought into words, you can subconsciously retain that structure and put it to use for your own purposes. After going without reading any novels for an entire semester (college life without humanities classes ugh) and then voraciously consuming Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon I tangibly felt my vocabulary and capacity for articulated thought come easier.

xyzzy123 13y ago
One of the odd pleasures of reading for me is noticing how hard it is not to mimic the style of novels I'm reading Say, after reading Anthony Burgess, I'll use more $5 words than after I've just read a Kurt Vonnegut novel. Also, how painful it is to write in what passes for academic or business formal style.