RSS = ADD?
I have a feeling that blogs (and discussion fora) are leading to a decline in my attention span. I "read" through 44 different RSS feeds with a total of maybe 150 posts a day and countless of forum threads with several dozens of posts each. What these two mediums have in common is that they largely consist of short bursts of information which can be easily sifted through so I only have to read what really catches my attention. This creates two problems:
- Increased selectivity of what I read.
- Decreased length of text read.
The issue is that I now have trouble reading "traditional" texts since every part of the text might not interest me and as a result, I get bored easily and have to drag myself through sections. This, coupled with how easily I can access "easy" information, has shortened the time I can actually sit down and read a long text. Whereas I used to be able to sit and read for an hour or two, now I can read for half an hour tops without getting distracted (~20 pages with my ever-declining reading speed).
This is all fine if it hadn't affected my retention of what I read. I could recall at most 50 posts I read today and not even half the examples of the last book I read (Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell), which I finished a week ago. Since it takes me so long to read a book, I lose continuity, which in turn (I suppose) disrupts recall. I'm about to start a book (which at first glance, at least) looks fascinating and would like to be able to discuss it a month after I finish it with others who have read it without sounding like I didn't read it at all. I may have to start setting aside some dedicated time and find a comfortable place (far away from my computer) to start getting my attention span for these kinds of things (not to mention reading speed and recall rate) back up. By the way, the book is Freakonomics which is a whole 256 pages long. It sounds a bit daunting at the moment, but I'm setting a personal goal to finish it in no more than 5 sittings (not to span more than two weeks).
