Comments on: The Internet Is Making Me Illiterate http://therumpus.net/2009/11/the-internet-is-eating-your-brain/ Books, Music, Movies, Art, Politics, Sex, Other Sun, 27 May 2012 16:56:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Seth Fischer http://therumpus.net/2009/11/the-internet-is-eating-your-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-11431 Seth Fischer Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:09:59 +0000 http://therumpus.net/?p=37417#comment-11431 Hi Brian, I wish that were the case with me. Again, I'm not trying to say anything about how it affects everyone -- just report what people are saying and say how it affects me. When I wake up in the morning, I can read as long as I do it before the computer is on. Once I log on, it's hopeless. The cycle starts. Check Email 1, 2 and 3, check all the sites I'm working on, check all the sites I'm interested in, check facebook (I stayed away from Twitter, thank God), then go back to email. It's terrible. And once I'm stuck in it, I can kiss any real good reading goodbye. I just can't focus on it. Maybe I need some Ritalin or something. Or maybe I should just go after my computer with a sledgehammer. But then I'd still have my phone. Damn it! Hi Brian, I wish that were the case with me. Again, I’m not trying to say anything about how it affects everyone — just report what people are saying and say how it affects me. When I wake up in the morning, I can read as long as I do it before the computer is on. Once I log on, it’s hopeless. The cycle starts. Check Email 1, 2 and 3, check all the sites I’m working on, check all the sites I’m interested in, check facebook (I stayed away from Twitter, thank God), then go back to email. It’s terrible. And once I’m stuck in it, I can kiss any real good reading goodbye. I just can’t focus on it. Maybe I need some Ritalin or something. Or maybe I should just go after my computer with a sledgehammer. But then I’d still have my phone. Damn it!

]]> By: Brian Spears http://therumpus.net/2009/11/the-internet-is-eating-your-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-11430 Brian Spears Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:58:00 +0000 http://therumpus.net/?p=37417#comment-11430 It's not the format--it's the multitasking that's the problem. Recent studies have shown that no one actually multitasks--we just divide our attention into ever tinier chunks, with the net effect that we wind up dumber as a result. Internet usage can certainly add to that, but it alone isn't the culprit--we're doing it to ourselves. Ask yourself--when you're online, how many tabs do you have open at a time? I probably average between 6 and 8, depending on whether or not I'm working in Google docs at the time. Plus I've got Twitter running in the background, my Mac Mail chimes when I get something, and one of the tabs is usually Facebook, which updates regularly as well. If I spend just a couple of hours doing that, I can barely speak coherently, and I do it more often than I should, to be quite honest. But if I'm reading, just reading, whether a book or on Stanza on my iPhone, my attention is undivided, no matter the format, and I'm fine. The format isn't the issue--it's the notion that we can multitask. It’s not the format–it’s the multitasking that’s the problem. Recent studies have shown that no one actually multitasks–we just divide our attention into ever tinier chunks, with the net effect that we wind up dumber as a result. Internet usage can certainly add to that, but it alone isn’t the culprit–we’re doing it to ourselves.

Ask yourself–when you’re online, how many tabs do you have open at a time? I probably average between 6 and 8, depending on whether or not I’m working in Google docs at the time. Plus I’ve got Twitter running in the background, my Mac Mail chimes when I get something, and one of the tabs is usually Facebook, which updates regularly as well. If I spend just a couple of hours doing that, I can barely speak coherently, and I do it more often than I should, to be quite honest.

But if I’m reading, just reading, whether a book or on Stanza on my iPhone, my attention is undivided, no matter the format, and I’m fine. The format isn’t the issue–it’s the notion that we can multitask.

]]> By: anna http://therumpus.net/2009/11/the-internet-is-eating-your-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-11428 anna Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:45:35 +0000 http://therumpus.net/?p=37417#comment-11428 Stuff like this really makes me wonder about teaching kids to read from digital formats. Stuff like this really makes me wonder about teaching kids to read from digital formats.

]]>