Technology, Reading, Thinking

[SOLDIER #819]

I just read an article for my English class called, "In the Beginning Was the Word". You can find it here:

http://www.wilsonquarterly.com/article.cfm?AID=1473

The basic idea is that nowadays (with the standard internet format) we don't take the time to just sit down and get acquainted with books or ideas. We don't really try to get to know an author's (or anyone's) point of view, and mostly just seek expediency in all our intellectual activity. We just take snippets or skim and never really look at anything in depth anymore because it's just convenient and easy.

When we actually do put forth a minimum of time into reading someone else's stuff, it's normally just so we can show off. We're basically just reading so that we can argue, post our own opinion, etc. We don't go in with the expectation of learning something, but so we can gather up the ammo to reinforce our beliefs.

And we love showing off to a large audience. Even the most introverted post on Facebook, Twitter, etc., etc., but when it comes down to writing an essay (even one page) for a class or something we normally think of it as boring or pointless because nothing comes of it... it's just for the prof, after all. The audience just isn't big enough to effect a big change on our lives.

There's more, but I can't remember all of it. Read the article and prove it wrong? Haha. I extracted the stuff I agreed with on some level, and possibly (unintentionally) skewed it to fit my mindset, so yeah.

Are they right? Will you even bother to read this article? Do you think it's a waste of time to read long things when you can get it in an abridged form, despite what may or may not be lost? Do you really even absorb what you read? Do you usually only read in-depth when you think it's something that needs to be defeated by your own opinion? Do you spend more time thinking of what to post on Facebook than you do actually reading on Facebook (barring lurkers)? Did you even read the majority of this drawn out post, or just skim it? So on, so forth.

[Rowan]

I just read an article for my English class called, "In the Beginning Was the Word". You can find it here:

http://www.wilsonquarterly.com/Artic...9C83DFDF0CA0AC

The basic idea is that nowadays (with the standard internet format) we don't take the time to just sit down and get acquainted with books or ideas. We don't really try to get to know an author's (or anyone's) point of view, and mostly just seek expediency in all our intellectual activity. We just take snippets or skim and never really look at anything in depth anymore because it's just convenient and easy.

When we actually do put forth a minimum of time into reading someone else's stuff, it's normally just so we can show off. We're basically just reading so that we can argue, post our own opinion, etc. We don't go in with the expectation of learning something, but so we can gather up the ammo to reinforce our beliefs.

And we love showing off to a large audience. Even the most introverted post on Facebook, Twitter, etc., etc., but when it comes down to writing an essay (even one page) for a class or something we normally think of it as boring or pointless because nothing comes of it... it's just for the prof, after all. The audience just isn't big enough to effect a big change on our lives.

There's more, but I can't remember all of it. Read the article and prove it wrong? Haha. I extracted the stuff I agreed with on some level, and possibly (unintentionally) skewed it to fit my mindset, so yeah.

Are they right? Will you even bother to read this article? Do you think it's a waste of time to read long things when you can get it in an abridged form, despite what may or may not be lost? Do you really even absorb what you read? Do you usually only read in-depth when you think it's something that needs to be defeated by your own opinion? Do you spend more time thinking of what to post on Facebook than you do actually reading on Facebook (barring lurkers)? Did you even read the majority of this drawn out post, or just skim it? So on, so forth.

Well I wanted to read the article but unfortunatly the link is broken. It mentioned someonthing about the article being available only for 10 minutes =S

Im not 100 percent sure of what the article was takling about exactly, but I'll give it a shot. I think the way we approach learning has changed since way back when. Now its all about facts and what can be proved, as much as who the people are that discovered the ideas in question. Noone really cares who came up with what first, its useless knowledge. Knowing E=MC squared is useful (to some, not all) but knowing that it was Einstein who came up with the idea is rather useless knowledge in the sense that it doesnt really apply to furthar an understanding of anything, except maybe about him.

Having said this, I think its safe to say people are only interested in knowledge that they themselves can apply. This might mean skimming through articles until they find something that they wanted to know, or perhaps to find something that they could use to re-enforce what they currently believed. This applies heavily to idealogy.

In my personal experience, I tend to do just this. I will just skim through things, unless of course they interest me. The reason being is because I have a hard time believing anything I read these days. Theres always an opposite opinion and no real truth to be learned, only a decision to be made in what to believe based on the information that is presented to you. The idea that wisdom teeth extraction is dangerous and the idea that leaving widsom teeth in is dangerous, there are arguments for both sides. The only information I reguard more-so is the information as to why they are dangerous to be removed and thats simply because I want to re-enforce my own beliefs which reflect that. I will skim through articles that will promote extraction just to see the reasoning and logic used by the authors, but I will do so convinced that they are liars or misinformed.

I'm not sure if I've stayed on topic, but I couldn't read the article and didnt get enough to go on from your post to make a precise response.

[SOLDIER #819]

Here's the link: The Wilson Quarterly: In the Beginning Was the Word by Christina Rosen

I edited it into my post too. TFF went down just after I found out that directly linking to the pdf didn't work.