Thinky thoughts

[eretria]

quiller77 linked Neither Luddite nor Biltonite, in which the author discusses the impact the internet and mobile phones have on our attention span as well as our ability to process information.

It hits a sore spot, and does pose a very valid question: Twenty years down the line, will our children, will we ourselves still be reading novels or texts longer than half a page? Will we even still be able to process the un-compressed information?

The thought scares me, because I often find myself not reading the editorials in my daily newspaper, but gear toward the shorter ones. Sure, I could give you reasons for that: I go to work by train, I have no room to unfold a big newspaper properly to read the editorial, I'm tired in the morning, the brain needs to start slowly, I'm tired in the evening when I get back home, the editorial isn't all that interesting ... except: They're excuses. I could read the damn thing. I don't always sleep on the train. It's not always crowded. The brain definitely does not need to take it easy.
So ... is this the first sign of a dwindling attention span? And if so, isn't that frigging scary? And how does one stop it?

Have you noticed a change in your reading behaviour since you first came online?