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It's not just kids. About 6 months ago, I started reading "Constellation Games," a really fun and clever sci-fi novel. Yet it now sits on my desk about 2/3 comp

It's not just kids. About 6 months ago, I started reading "Constellation Games," a really fun and clever sci-fi novel. Yet it now sits on my desk about 2/3 complete. I didn't lose interest or anything -- I simply find it increasingly difficult to set aside time for pleasure reading, for a variety of reasons. Even though I enjoy long form reading, it's now something I have to schedule and force myself to do. I'm not sure whether I'm actually reading less in total (I don't believe so), or simply whether reading novels has been displaced by reading, say, HN and blogs. If I find it difficult these days, I can't imagine how difficult it might be for kids with (presumably) much shorter attention spans.

deelowe 12y ago
Maybe people simply have less free time these days? I know I find it hard even keeping up with paying bills at times.
abledon 12y ago
tldr; Our ability for deep reading is being affected by the internet medium we are operating in. [Coming from a person who grew up without internet] In this internet age, there is SO much text that we are forced to skim over, deciding whether it is relevant or not. If we didn't , and devoted 100% attention to every article/tutorial we came upon, we'd never get our tasks done. We're retraining our brains from the slow-paced deep reading required of an offline novel. Kids have no previous neural wiring that required deep immersive concentration into a static simple book of tatooed dead tree leaves. The first thing they are encountering is swaths of internet text, flashing, changing, interaction - too much stimulation for a developing brain. No wonder they can't concentrate, let alone, sit still and be engaged with a single text for a half hour or so.
- saraid216 12y ago
  > If we didn't , and devoted 100% attention to every article/tutorial we came upon, we'd never get our tasks done. I don't seem to have this problem. I frequently dismiss articles as not interesting, but I also make a point of reading stuff and then reflecting on it for a minute or two. I do the same kind of thing when I go to the movie theater; I watch the film, and then I let the credits roll while I think about what I just saw. I consider this basic mental hygiene. It's not clear to me why so many people excuse themselves from it in the name of convenience and efficiency.
segmondy 12y ago
We are reading more crap. I read tons of blogs, HN, reddit, and useless stuff every day. Seems important, but not. We are overloaded with shallow information. When I was young and there was no internet, getting access to information, especially one with depth was a delight. It opened up a new world, where your imagination went to work. Today, there are very few things that wow and have my mind racing as it did when I was much younger. The same applies to kids today, with TV/Internet they have somehow seen it all, even if it's just at the surface level, so very few get drawn to dig in deeper.
- sitkack 12y ago
  I find my active creativity is _much_ higher when reading well thought out print material like the New Yorker, fiction OR non-fiction book. My mind races with new creations and combinations. This rarely happens with online material which favors the NOW instead of the good. One cannot subsist off of newspapers and blogs along, they are deficient in all the nutrients the mind needs. The thoughts are shallow and hurried with repetitive easy to digest truisms. A single sentence expanded to fill an entire article. Reading something deeply takes work. Writing it even more.
r00fus 12y ago
I only read using audiobooks now on my commute. It's kind of sad, but I'm also cognizant of the fact that kids and increased self-service training and my own coding projects tend to eat up all of my non-work time (and sometimes, my sleeptime). The zenith of my book-reading seemed to happen in college/uni. btw, thanks for the tip on your current book. I'm off to see if there's some audiobook version of it.

deelowe 12y ago

Maybe people simply have less free time these days? I know I find it hard even keeping up with paying bills at times.

abledon 12y ago

tldr; Our ability for deep reading is being affected by the internet medium we are operating in. [Coming from a person who grew up without internet] In this internet age, there is SO much text that we are forced to skim over, deciding whether it is relevant or not. If we didn't , and devoted 100% attention to every article/tutorial we came upon, we'd never get our tasks done. We're retraining our brains from the slow-paced deep reading required of an offline novel. Kids have no previous neural wiring that required deep immersive concentration into a static simple book of tatooed dead tree leaves. The first thing they are encountering is swaths of internet text, flashing, changing, interaction - too much stimulation for a developing brain. No wonder they can't concentrate, let alone, sit still and be engaged with a single text for a half hour or so.

saraid216 12y ago
> If we didn't , and devoted 100% attention to every article/tutorial we came upon, we'd never get our tasks done. I don't seem to have this problem. I frequently dismiss articles as not interesting, but I also make a point of reading stuff and then reflecting on it for a minute or two. I do the same kind of thing when I go to the movie theater; I watch the film, and then I let the credits roll while I think about what I just saw. I consider this basic mental hygiene. It's not clear to me why so many people excuse themselves from it in the name of convenience and efficiency.

segmondy 12y ago

We are reading more crap. I read tons of blogs, HN, reddit, and useless stuff every day. Seems important, but not. We are overloaded with shallow information. When I was young and there was no internet, getting access to information, especially one with depth was a delight. It opened up a new world, where your imagination went to work. Today, there are very few things that wow and have my mind racing as it did when I was much younger. The same applies to kids today, with TV/Internet they have somehow seen it all, even if it's just at the surface level, so very few get drawn to dig in deeper.

sitkack 12y ago
I find my active creativity is _much_ higher when reading well thought out print material like the New Yorker, fiction OR non-fiction book. My mind races with new creations and combinations. This rarely happens with online material which favors the NOW instead of the good. One cannot subsist off of newspapers and blogs along, they are deficient in all the nutrients the mind needs. The thoughts are shallow and hurried with repetitive easy to digest truisms. A single sentence expanded to fill an entire article. Reading something deeply takes work. Writing it even more.

r00fus 12y ago

I only read using audiobooks now on my commute. It's kind of sad, but I'm also cognizant of the fact that kids and increased self-service training and my own coding projects tend to eat up all of my non-work time (and sometimes, my sleeptime). The zenith of my book-reading seemed to happen in college/uni. btw, thanks for the tip on your current book. I'm off to see if there's some audiobook version of it.