Suckers for Irrelevancy: impact of internet's modus operandi

Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains | Magazine

This certainly reflects my own feeling on the internet, and on the modern world in general. Too many people rushing to do too many things at the same time, badly. We all need to get our breaks in for reflection and thought creation.

"There’s nothing wrong with absorbing information quickly and in bits and pieces. We’ve always skimmed newspapers more than we’ve read them, and we routinely run our eyes over books and magazines to get the gist of a piece of writing and decide whether it warrants more thorough reading. The ability to scan and browse is as important as the ability to read deeply and think attentively. The problem is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of thought. Once a means to an end, a way to identify information for further study, it’s becoming an end in itself—our preferred method of both learning and analysis. Dazzled by the Net’s treasures, we are blind to the damage we may be doing to our intellectual lives and even our culture."

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