Reading Habits
Reading is unfortunately, not a habit for me. I don’t read at a specific time or place. I usually read when I feel like it, which happens at random times of the day and quite strangely, everyday. I read all kinds of books, but mostly books that have been recommended to me. To be honest, I am a bit picky of what books I read. I do not particular like non-fictional books or books that you can easily predict from the first chapter. I like to read thrillers, fiction, mystery, short stories, memoirs (an exception), and classics (but not all classics). If the writer grabs me in the first couple of chapters, I cannot stop reading until I finish the book. I’ll sit for a couple hours reading and maybe finish the book in a couple of sittings. This occasion is rare. Not all books can grab your attention and tug you into their world. So, typically, I read for about forty minutes at a time. The most common setting I read in is in my quiet room on my bed. Noises disturb the pace of my reading and often distract me from the focus of the book.
After reading quietly, I find myself experiencing what was mentioned in Carr’s argument in Is Google Making Us Stupid. Although I previously stated that I read in forty minute sittings, I realized during those minutes I was not fully immersed in the text. I was fidgeting, changing my posture, playing with the tips of the pages, and looking up at the clock once and a while. I was struggling to focus on the text and its meaning. This, discussed in Carr’s argument, is probably as a result from using the internet and goggling. My result from this little experiment that was conducted with my reading assignment demonstrates the truth in Carr’s argument. The internet is “making us stupid”.The truth is alarming because this is happening unconsciously to people all around the world who use the internet. The new generation is using more and more technology to seek knowledge, but in a way that requires less attention. Thus, the human race is undergoing an evolution. The information on the Internet is gradually decreasing our concentration spans and in a way, taking away the way we think. Who knows the future when our future leaders have a short attention span.
Subsequently, I became a bit self-conscious surfing the internet. I saw myself taking quick glances at articles and hardly staying on one webpage for over two minutes, but then I picked up a book. A book may not have a search engine, pop-out advertisements, videos, or sound effects, but it has a source of knowledge like any webpage around. The next instance, I started reading a book, concentrating and thinking like a reader should be. Although it is hard to break away from the Internet, readers should resist and stick with the classics, pen and paper.
