How the Internet is Making it Harder to Read Books

As I have long suspected as a psychology graduate, the internet seems to be changing the neurological makeup of our brains. One of the scariest changes is it's affect on the ability to do any complex thinking or analysis, even planning ahead.

Another major change seems to be from linear to non-linear thinking, at least in reading. According to the linked article, literature professors are finding that their students are unable to read books.

Brain scans are starting to show changes in the neurological makeup of human brains due to internet use. In addition, an Israeli study found that although engineering students thought they were better at comprehending information on screens, they were really better at comprehending information on paper.

Of course, for the individual, the brain can still be trained to be able to read books and complex thought, but it takes an effort.

My question is how does this impact social relationships, even government? If people cannot think for themselves, the government could step in.

Another thing is this - even if an individual is capable of complex thought, there is no where to go. For thousands of years we as humans have had a complicated real-life network of complex thought that was peer reviewed for accuracy.

Now complex thought seems to be fragmenting into isolated bubbles.

One other way to look at this is from the perspective of the progression of the ages from Pisces to Aquarius. Oddly enough, at first glance, the changes seem to be in line with the signs.

There was a thread written a bit back about how the www could be the Mark of the Beast. Well - how many of you are finding an unusual kinship with animals? I do these days.

The neurological changes could be aligning our thought processes with animals, or beasts. Therefore Mark of the Beast becomes descriptive rather than mystical.



m.theage.com.au..." target="_blank" class="postlink">The Internet is Affecting our Ability to Read Books

To counter-balance the world of low-attention-span tweets and facebook BS and chaotic discussion forums, I read at least one book a month. I`m glad people are looking into the long-term drawbacks of too much internet.

Edit to add: Im sure you meant this: 666 = www

reply to post by darkbake


sandf
yeah, you're right Dark...i noticed now adays i go to the library to use the computer...or borrow tunes
and books have to have very very good info in them to engage me these days... I almost never read fiction anymore
i used to be a 5 to 10 book a week reader too.

i wonder though...what about the influence of TV?...
i don't watch that any more if I can help it, but it was in the house from childhood on...
for me lately its all internet, and radio...
radio which these days is really good i find

reply to post by darkbake





Apart from the stuff about mark of the beast, a very interesting thread OP
The Internet really is messing with people's brains... and it's not only the internet but cell/mobile phones too, people are constantly staring at a device and find it difficult to hold conversations, maintain eye contact and tear themselves away from their devices.
Even family meals, spending time with loved ones and friends... most people cannot stop looking at the screens.


It really is screwing with us as a species and will lead to untold issues in the future

I can see that happening, and hitting closer to home, ATS can be blamed a bit. Ok maybe not blamed as I believe people are responsible for their actions but... there have been several posts ive seen prefaced with" I could have googled it but would rather ask ATS"

Now I understand why we would ask here as opposed to using the data base of pretty much every piece of information in the world that just happens to be at our fingertips.

I guess every technological breakthrough demands a price to be paid.

Fahrenheit 451 here we come,
do we have 10 and 15 min tv shows yet...

I agree with you mate, as soon as "Google it" became the term for "I'm going to look into that for myself " we should have seen this coming.... The masses have always needed guided through life, can't think for themselves, that's why the world is the way it is, there brains are just switching from MSM newspaper and comic book mode to internet mode, same people, same percentage of the population, new way to be stupid....

I spend about an hour or two on the internet a day but I also read a book a week, at least 80-100 pages a day/night, have done for years and I won't stop doing it, the internet is an amazing tool if you know how to use it but it is also another form of enslavery if you do not...

If it wasn't for the internet I probably wouldn't read any books. It all depends on how you use the internet, if you use Twitter and Facebook all day then of course it's not going to help you get smarter. But if you use it to look up research and studies like this one, studies which are almost impossible to read outside of the internet, then it's going to benefit you isn't it? The internet holds information relating to almost any topic imaginable. You can't blame the internet for those people who simply don't take full advantage of it.

Like with most things, its a tool. In and of itself, I dont think it has much power to do anything. However, once we use it in a certain way, then it can either become detrimental or beneficial.

Id say that, overall, dependency on technology (dependency on a specific tool) is the issue at hand rather than the tool itself.

Most dont even think about how they are going to use things like this, but that works out very well for marketing, etc. People who dont think about how to use a tool to its best potential tend to be subject to the whims of those that can influence how much dependence is fostered.

reply to post by darkbake


I watch very little TV, my radio is on almost always just for background noise. But I do go the library at least twice a week and usually walk out with two books each time. Some fiction, but mainly history.

While I'm unsure if brains are changing, but comprehension of data certainly is. It seems you can't ask a honest question these days without some one googling the answer. A utter failure of thinking for ones self.

reply to post by darkbake


Very interesting, I enjoyed the op.

I personally enjoy reading a good book my self and I haven't found that the internent has harmed my ability to comprehend the information held in books.

Forgive me for my Ignorance about the subject (I can't click on source links as I am on a wii right now and most sites dont work well with it), How did they come to the conclusion that it is the internet that is causing this lack of comprehention?

Did they do a full study on this, or is the professors just speculation?

What kind of tests (if any) did they use to get to this conclusion?

This seems like a big claim, Could it be because there are so many bright colours and flashing images in the ads on websites that keep catch and hold peoples attention?

Or are they talking about the lazy computer language; We have all seen it.... LOL (im guilty for that one), LMAO, IMO, IMHO, CRAY CRAY (That ones not lazy its just stupid),FYI, DIY, BTW ect.

Personally I enjoy reading things on the internet, or using it to download digital copies of books If I can't find hard copies.

I see the internet as a tool to learn, I dont like to abuse it or play games or use facebook twitter and all that jazz as I believe those things really do dumb you down.

Once again thank you for the thread, You sparked my interest so I will start looking into this more.

Well I disagree..

We shouldn’t point the blame finger at Internet, it is one of the greatest tool ever introduce to the humanity especially in form of research and information.

Alas, like everything else the internet is subject to its creator’s abuse and mismanagements, I really don’t miss those (library) days when I had to walk almost 6 km to the library in all (dog weather conditions) to get some books for my researches and worse… the books weren’t available or out loaned to someone else so I had to wait for ages to get what I needed. Right now all of them are under my fingertips just a second away.

Our societies failed miserably all the time any way (too many vanities/ignorance). Everything needs disciplines and should be taught carefully in very entry level of their usage, we ignored the fact hence we all failed.

The scariest part of growing older, in my mind anyway, is the possibility of dementia. I'm messed up enough already. Reading is supposed to help keep the mind sharp as we age... so I read a lot.

I read a lot of ebooks and such, but there is still nothing better than the printed word

reply to post by madmac5150


I agree with you... reading in any form is still reading, you still have to think while reading either way.

Personally I stay away from novels (fiction and non-fiction) I enjoy a good book that can teach me something. I also enjoy the odd biography of one of my favorite scientist or rockstar, but its mostly just books about Science, Space, Ancient History and pretty much anything else that I can learn something from.

Maybe those college kids just grew up in an enviroment where reading a book was taboo? I know for some of my family it is.

reply to post by snypwsd

Personally I stay away from novels (fiction and non-fiction) I enjoy a good book that can teach me something.

Fiction can be a wonderful teacher and also help people to look at life in different ways.

All I know, this is my experience or rather observation, is that people are not as they were before the internet. I mean there is the obvious clothes, culture and everything changes with time. But there has been a huge shift in day to day interacting, socializing, responding, dating, etc. It's much different now than it was, say, back in the 1990s and earlier. I feel people already can't think for themselves and the government already has us. I hope I'm wrong and it's just my view of things.

But I find it interesting when I sit back and think of life before the internet took off. People are information junkies now. They can't live without Google. It's as if Google is the Great and Powerful Oz. We run to Google for everything from where to eat to how to get to point A to B, we seek advice, opinions, ideas from all from Google. Before the internet, it has occurred to me that if we needed to ask a question, seek advice, get directions, we had to go to the library or ask a friend or even a stranger. Somehow I don't see people from back then being any less smarter than they are today. It's almost like we knew more then than we do now. Where did this information come from? How were we in "the know" back then without the necessities of today, cell phones, ipads, internet, massive cable channels, arrays of pseudo educational TV shows, and such? Before the internet we all didn't walk around with a library in our pocket. But we got by and did ok. Now days people freak if they leave home without a cell phone. The can't function. I think we were better at communicating when we only had our mouths and initiative to do so. These days people won't even look at their dinner partner because they are too busy texting. I think this is where the government has got us. They've got us absorbed on gadgets and the frivolous such as reality TV and who's dating who and who's wearing what and this is how you should look and act. We ignore the big problems and real issues.

Also, our minds have to move at a much quicker speed than they use too. Images on TV and on the net move much faster and in shorter bits. We try to watch TV, hold a conversation and text at the same time. We overload ourselves. Our attention span and patience has grown shorter. I often wonder if this is some of the reason ADHD and ADD has risen so high in society. People also generally now ride surfaces of conversation and I think the fast moving speed of images and sound that we are growing accustom to makes it hard for lots of people (not all) to have deep meaningful conversations that go on for hours. Or the ability to think things completely through.

But this is all just my opinion

Sorry double posted on accident.

reply to post by darkbake


I definitely believe that the internet has re-wired the way the human brain absorbs information. For one thing, our attention spans shorten when we engage in "associative thinking," a term I heard on an NPR broadcast (All Things Considered) about the internet's impact on the human brain.

Whenever I see people reading a Kindle or a NOOK I feel a little sad. I don't want 3-D printed books to become obsolete. I like to write notes by hand in the book margins as I read. I like the smell of an old book, flipping the pages of a book, curling up with a good book on a rainy weekend.

I think the impact on education and reading is trending towards student-used Kindles, NOOKs or iPads to read and to complete assignments with. Many students complete their homework on these gadgets or on the computer and then post their assignment on a Moodle blackboard.

Slowly but surely, our lives are being integrated online: we socialize, date, do homework, read, shop, correspond, get diagnosed, work, reserve airfare/train fare/bus fare and make dinner reservations or doctor appointments. And our private information is available online at the click of a button and a small fee (background checks, address lookup, medical records).

Welcome to the Information Age and life on-the-screen.

tinner07
I can see that happening, and hitting closer to home, ATS can be blamed a bit. Ok maybe not blamed as I believe people are responsible for their actions but... there have been several posts ive seen prefaced with" I could have googled it but would rather ask ATS"

Now I understand why we would ask here as opposed to using the data base of pretty much every piece of information in the world that just happens to be at our fingertips.

I guess every technological breakthrough demands a price to be paid.

I could spend 3 hours reading various articles. Or i could post a thread and let Phage swing by and summarize whats what.

benrl
Fahrenheit 451 here we come,
do we have 10 and 15 min tv shows yet...

Aqua Teen Hunger Force, go check it out sometime!