25 Mar
Just the Log Today
Sorry, no thoughts to share today, yet…
Today’s Print Reading List
- Seattle Times, entire March 25th edition (PRINT) with breakfast and lunch
- The Week, latest issue (PRINT) in the evening
Approximate print reading time: 1.5 hours
Today’s Online Reading List
- Amazon.com- Kindle discussion forum to see when my Kindle might arrive.
- ESPN.com to see how my brackets are doing
- LeafNotes.whatMsg.com -yes, finally working on starting my gardening blog
Approximate online reading time: 2 hours
I’ve got a topic for you…in class I was discussing with my students how when creating a website, most users do not “read” all the content but rather skim.
With information being so readily available with little searching (or researching) being done by most and multitasking being the norm, do you think that reading has become somewhat less important to some? I find myself not even fully reading mail,news,etc., but skimming through to get the important info and moving on to the next task.
Since your blog appeared, I have been trying to make an effort to get back to reading and paying close attention to things I would normally skim, but I wonder how many people have given reading a back seat.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:34 amThanks for the “food for thought!” I am not sure I completely agree that reading is necessarily less important, but changed for sure thanks to new technologies. Skimming to me is essentially selective reading and may have a lot to do with the participant’s intention in engaging with a certain piece of text. We have so many options of how to get the information we think we need- and some of it isn’t even text-based anymore. Though I do agree that comprehension is probably down and we don’t have time to care. One of the books on my Kindle reading list is The Age of American Unreason which I believe is about the current atmosphere of anti-intellectualism in out society and probably covers what I am trying to say. I’ll let you know once I have my Kindle and have read it!
We also still only have 24 hours in a day and are cramming more than ever into a day so something has to change. I just read an article last night that I was planning on commenting on today which is somewhat related. See if you agree after I get the post up there. In the meanwhile, my personal take is that skimming is like being a passenger in a car to a new destination. You generally know where you’re going and what you’re looking for, but if you had to drive the next time you would probably need directions because you weren’t really paying close enough attention. As for skimming, you might get the gist of something this way, but certainly won’t become an expert and may miss the bigger meaning altogether. But then again, in today’s world of the 5 second sound bite, most won’t know the difference. Also, if you ever need the information again, you know it can probably be easily found again. This is kind of like relying on a navigation system in the car. Why bother paying attention to landmarks if your nav system will tell you where to go next time anyway. Yes, I’m a little cynical on this point.
And finally, I absolutely skim. I read complete texts a lot too, but by skimming I can read much more of what I truly find interesting and wade through all the stuff that doesn’t grab me for whatever reason. The only periodical I read 100% every word of is “The Week,” but there the editors have already done the skimming for me! I hope schools are doing a good job of teaching effective first paragraphs and abstracts. Hmm, my skimming methodology might be a topic for another day.
On to today’s post which is related I believe…
March 26th, 2008 at 2:55 pm