Tuesday 30 August 2011

DO YOU SURF, SWIM OR SCUBA DIVE THE WEB?





Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, has suggested that the web is making us more stupid – that we are distracted and unable to concentrate on one thing long enough to engage with it properly.

With the information in the headers and the sidebars constantly changing - and the links there to tempt us and encourage side-tracking - most websites actively discourage concentration.

Carr suggests everyone is skimming over the glittering surface of the web. 

Trying to save time and find more information, my style is more like a swimmer: I dip a little deeper but push a lot of excellent information behind me. 

Nicholas Carr’s point is valid, I don’t have enough time to be much of a scuba diver.

When it comes to recreational reading, I cling to real books; this is literally true. 

If the story is gripping, my fingers ache from clutching the cover and I resent the time it takes to turn over. I hold the pages higher and I peep around before I’ve actually finished reading the end of the page.

The reader exists on two plains - there in-body but in-spirit somewhere else instead.

"The novelist is inviting the reader to watch a performance in his own brain." ~ George Buchanan

Do you see yourself as a surfer, a swimmer or a scuba diver, when it comes to the Internet? 


4 comments:

  1. I, too believe in moderation. We have more information available to us than ever before. You could waste your day easily. If I haven't read or seen what I want to read or see by the time I finish my morning coffee, then it's just not happening.

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  2. I am a skimmer, so let's say I'm water skiing, skimmong over the top. I have found very little reason to dig much deeper than that. The web is like magazine articles-- most of what is there you can get in the first couple paragraphs. I really don't do much here except read blogs. To me, they are way more interesting and clever than articles the "experts" are writing.

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  3. I worry about what the web is doing to all of our brains. I don't intentionally do it, but I do find myself flipping from one thing to another even while I am trying to concentrate on an article I am reading. Even when writing, I will generally check my email(s) several times. I have tried to get away from my computer for that reason. that is one reason I am against ebooks. Most of them allow web access which allow for even more distraction. I can't imagine I would read more than a page or two without checking my email "one more time" or checking on a definition just to see what a word meant (which definitely sounds good!) but then just losing track of my reading like a ADHD kid. That's the problem-- the internet is a distraction machine everywhere you turn. Every page! Even my blog is not just one singe page of text- it has links all over it to draw a reader on to something more!!!!

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  4. I probably do a little of all 3, depending on what I'm reading. I tend to keep my own posts "light" or I notice no one reads them. I keep another serious blog on wordpress and never the twain shall meet.
    Manzanita@Wannabuyaduck

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