A topic that Carr talks about quite often is reading things over the internet vs. reading in a book. Carr's argument is that reading on the internet only involves skimming to find what you're looking for, whereas in a book you read through the entire thing. He feels that the internet is causing more and more people to solely skim over things instead of reading them. But is this really the case?
I feel that the reason people are skimming and not reading for comprehension isn't caused by the internet. People are just skimming because thats what they choose to do. I don't think people who know how to read and comprehend things have lost that ability. They are just choosing not to use it. I constantly skim while reading on the internet, but that doesn't make me only skim when reading The Shallows. I believe that people have the ability to read, as well as skim, even while using the internet.
5 comments:
Everything these days is a matter of time. Reading takes up time that could be used for something else. I agree that people have the ability to read but if you skim and understand the meanings and points of the reading, then what is the down side?
A wise man once told me, "Just Do It". If I want to engage in deep reading then I will. If I just want to access something specific then I skim. If I'm interested in an article online then I'll read the whole thing. I agree with Shake and Jake because our brains may be changing but Carr contradicts himself when he says our long term cognitive activity comes back to us easily the second time around. This means we can re-learn something easier the second time, therefore we can fall back into deep reading easily too.
I think the problem is that we are cheating. We are cheating our minds, selling ourselves short. We are cheating the text itself. It was written to be read in a certain way and skimming cheats that. We are cheating the author. He or she put in work to write a seamless text. If they wanted it to be skimmed then they would write it in that manner, but know us we would then just skim the already skimmed text. I am not saying I don't skim because I do, I'm saying I think skimming wrong. We sell ourselves short when we skim.
Skimming does sell us short, but then again we do live in a culture where saving time is valued. The downside occurs when we simply glance over material that we deem not as important. We can miss out on information that we could gain when deep reading as a practice overall.
I would agree with you. If I wanted to sit down and immerse myself in something, I could. But why read all of the details when you aren't interested? Just skimming makes a mundane task like reading the news quicker. Not that i think reading the news is boring, but I just want the facts, not the reactions of neighbors 10 miles from the scene of the event.
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