Internet and Literacy: Is it Sink or Skim?
In our current society, everyone is connected and many can perform the most simple task in seconds because of the aid of our phones. You’d think that this would make
reading faster and easier, since we can instantly access stories on the Internet and on websites like Kindle and Wattpad, and young children are now being taught to read stories online. This will improve all our reading skills, right?
Nice try.
Have you heard of the acronym TL;DR? It’s a new one, commonly found on Reddit, short for “too long; didn’t read”, used for some people that make posts longer than what our tiny attention spans expect. However, I believe that the acronym applies to many pieces of text outside of Reddit. You may have no problem keeping up with the current news 24/7 whenever it hits you in the face, but to read something for a large chunk of time for at least 15 minutes has become a hassle to most.
I personally feel the change from reading online. I skim through books all the time. Believe me, I do try to force myself to sit down and read a book whenever I can, but I no longer feel myself getting lost in the words of it anymore, especially after blasting my way through article after article for an hour on my phone. I realize that I usually skim through articles, picking out all of the important bits, and even if I “finish” it without distractions, I always end up somewhere else in what feels like no time at all, lured in by the next new distraction that catches my eye. And the worst part? It’s following me outside of the glass as well. Outside of school, I’m currently reading Terry Pratchett’s book “Wyrd Sisters”, which is about 350 or so pages long, and I’m only about 55 pages into it because I just can’t concentrate on finishing the damn thing. My concentration drifts off, and I’m stuck in this hellish ordeal of trying to consume the most information at top speed. Of course, I end up skimming anyway. I remember how I used to read when I was a kid, when I could read effectively and efficiently, getting engaged while simultaneously collecting information. Having lost my ability to read like that, I feel like a child whenever I struggle to read, completely helpless. It is terrifying.
You just skimmed through that paragraph, didn’t you? It was TL; you DR.
There’s no doubt that the Internet has changed the way we consume text and how we read it. Reading on a screen has become the norm. It has changed how we read completely, turning us into natural skimmers. As a result, seeing someone pick up a book and actually become invested in it for as long as time allows is rare nowadays. When it comes to the Internet, most of us just can’t commit to anything. We check our notifications on email and/or social media, look up a few things, come on a webpage, and then run off somewhere else to find something new. When we read articles online, we skim through, only fishing around for what’s important, and then we immediately leave after we’ve found it. In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr explains that “When we read online,we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.” (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/).
This has become a common concern nowadays among people who fear that the Internet is discouraging younger children from reading books as well. In the article “Medium Matters: The Effects of Print and Digital Texts on Comprehension”, Lauren Singer Trakhman claims that “comprehension is better when reading occurs in print” and “students’ accuracy at predicting the quality of their performance” also remains better when print reading. (https://impact.chartered.college/article/medium-matters-effects-print-digital-texts-comprehension/).
Marshall McLuhan believed that form and content are closely related and was also right when he said that the media changes us. Is the content consumed by heavy Internet users today highly digestible? Photos, short form videos, snaps and tweets. Even text has become frenetic and flighty. All of it is published at a high rate of frequency. As consumers of this “disposable” media we find it increasingly challenging to comprehend longer format content that stimulates our brains on a deeper level.
So how can we digest information through text on a platform that moves at the speed of light? Perhaps we should make this our top priority in the future if we wish to preserve the Internet while keeping our brains fresh and strong for the future.