Great article in the June edition of the Atlantic about how the internet is changing the way our minds work.
Linky.
Anyone else ever feel like this? Skimming instead of reading? Not enjoying words for the mere value of words and the way they can twist through your brain, giving you a slew of beautiful images?
I also find it interesting that Carr thinks we, as a culture, are probably reading FAR more than we were in the 70's, through emails, texts, internet searches, and countless forms of media that bombard us daily.
Take a look. It's worth the read. As writers, it's interesting to see how our readers are changing. And to find out if other writers in our market are making changes in their texts based on the "internet mind."
Linky.
Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.
Anyone else ever feel like this? Skimming instead of reading? Not enjoying words for the mere value of words and the way they can twist through your brain, giving you a slew of beautiful images?
I also find it interesting that Carr thinks we, as a culture, are probably reading FAR more than we were in the 70's, through emails, texts, internet searches, and countless forms of media that bombard us daily.
Take a look. It's worth the read. As writers, it's interesting to see how our readers are changing. And to find out if other writers in our market are making changes in their texts based on the "internet mind."