Reading Attention-Span Demanding Books In A Digital ADD World

August 10, 2009 / 10:37 am • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

James Joyner writes that he reads books less, now, and non-fiction at that, because he is reading all day in front of the computer:

I read non-fiction almost exclusively and have gone from being a book person to an article person. The efficiency of getting 85 percent of the point in eight pages that I would get in 300 pages has made it so that I seldom read books cover-to-cover. Even very fine books, such as David Kilcullen’s The Accidental Guerilla, are hard to finish because my inner editor quickly says “yeah, yeah — you’ve already said that in a slightly different way in the previous chapter.” To be sure, each new case study reveals additional nuances. But everything beyond the introductory chapter presents a very high work to reward ratio.

His whole post is worth a read. Ha!

Here’s what I’ve noticed: Now, I have to force myself to read outside of my computer time. Since working, writing and blogging on the computer, I find salient information more easily but the over arching big picture can get lost. That is, it is very easy to major in the minors when immersed online.

To step back, I’ll read non-fiction, sure. Before my intense online time, that’s almost exclusively what I read, but I have found my mind craving a different sort of information. When in Chiropractic college, majoring in the minors was also a problem. My intellectual life was broken down into biochemistry, microbiology, anatomy, physiology, embryology, pathology, etc. Likewise, today, my intellectual life is broken down into health care, taxes, economics, energy, and a myriad other policy choices. What I need is big picture.

Big picture ideas often come from two sources now–fantasy literature and magazine reading. What magazines? Certainly not Newsweek which has all the information of any propaganda. I lean toward magazines like Architectural Digest and Scientific American. Seems unrelated, right? But really, there are “big” ideas in both. What is new and different? What expands my world view? That’s what I hunger for in the age of bytes and bits.

So while I do feel my attention span has changed, I will sit for a good book or a good picture or a well-thought out article that expands my thought-scope. My patience for shoddy writing has dwindled. I just don’t have time to sit through a marginally good book. (I will read culturally relevant books on vacation–I should have been paid money to read the Golden Compass trilogy, for example. And those books won awards. Blech.)

Far from destroying my reading ability (except for limited time), the internet age has refined and shaped my leisurely reading desires. The internet has made me expect more.

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  • http://photoncourier.blogspot.com david foster

    My experience is a little different. On-line reading has definitely increased my quality threshold for articles, books, and video…stuff I would have previously read or watched now gets skipped. But I’m still very happy to read *well-written* books–fiction or non-fiction–or well-scripted and produced video.

    In fact, I just finished reading all 700 pages of “Vanity Fair” (the book, certainly not the magazine)

  • DaveR

    For me it’s not really an ADD thing, it’s more of a time issue (which is what I got from your post also). I have almost three full bookshelves (one is an 8-foot tall one too) of hardcover and paperback books ranging from Sci-fi, Fantasy, Clancy, Daily Comics compendiums, classics, and non-fiction political, money and health books. I have read everyone of them, some of them three or four times over the last 30ish years.

    But for the past decade or so, with work, family, and free time there’s not enough hours in the day if I want to get a full nights sleep to delve into a 500+ page Fiction novel. Traveling – sure, Vacations – yup, Flying – a must.

    The wider availability of the internet has also affected this for me, because it enables me to do things that I love (you know that old saying, find something you love to do and then get someone to pay for it – that’s me and my FUN is computers) anywhere, not just “from the office”. I used to get the newspaper and every day, usually over morning coffee, I would page thru every single page of the newspaper, skimming some stories, reading others, but keeping abreast of what’s going on and then go on about my day. Now you can keep up with even more “live” news just by hitting F5 on web pages (I don’t get any newspapers anymore either). So if I was someplace where I was finished with the newspaper and there wasn’t internet yet, that’s when reading would happen. It’s actually hard to find a place that doesn’t have internet anymore.

  • Trish

    I like to read in bed, a habit I picked up when I was pregnant 14 years ago. I have NO intention of taking the internet to bed with me!

    I’ll read non-fiction in bed occasionally, but not often. I use the internet primarily for research and information. When reading for pleasure I do not want to sit in front of a computer. I want to flop around, put my feet up, munch on things. And there is a physical pleasure in turning the pages of a good book.

    For informational reading I go online. For pleasure reading it’s still print for me.

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