Some prefer to eat three times a day. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. It seems that lately people in my country seem to skip the first meal, generally eat the second meal on-the-run or too quickly, and eat the last meal of the day far too late in the day.
Then you have the health conscious individuals that focus on eating smaller meals much more often. Proven to keep your metabolism raging throughout the day. Coupled with a good routine of exercise this is the sure-fire way to keep healthy and energetic.
But this post has nothing to do with food. It has to do with reading habits.
I love words. Reading them, writing them, seeing them crafted in ways that I can only aspire to. Because of this I read a lot. But I don’t read books (as often as I’d like). I read blogs, link lists, and tidbits of information strewn throughout the World Wide Web.
The link lists that I subscribe to are like little bits. Snacks, if you will. The really good ones will sum up entire articles in only a few sentences so that I’m not forced to read the entire linked-to-resource to find out why that person found it interesting. Really bad ones do the opposite.
The blogs that I subscribe to, in general, are well-written, hand-crafted, and consistently of high-quality, interesting information. The others are generally related to my work or things I’m interested in learning about. There are, also, the few that seem to fill in the cracks to make my subscription list more human and fun like photo blogs, blogs written by friends or family, and Web comics.
Lately I’ve been questioning my information in-take. What is better; reading these little bits of information rather than chewing on the whole meal, or maybe the other way around?
The more I think about it, the more I realize how new this dilemma is. Before the advent of the Internet the only way to get this much information at one time was to have a stack of books or magazines sitting in front of you, rifling through them as fast as your thumbs would allow, and reading a single paragraph from each page as you did it. You’d probably think someone doing that was crazy but that is exactly what it feels like I’m doing.
Have you ever spoken to someone who knows 20% about a topic? Sure they can hold their own in passing conversation about the topic so long as the conversation doesn’t last longer than 30 seconds. Once the conversation gets specific, the “20 percenter” is left standing there trying to catch up to the conversation and realizing they don’t know anything at all about the topic.
I’m beginning to think that unwittingly I’m going to end up being that person. A topic will arise at a gathering that I’ve read only four sentences about and I’ll answer the inevitable question of “Have you heard about (insert topic here)?” with a resounding “Yes!”. Then I’m caught. I’ve just stepped through the door of saying that I know something when I truly don’t. Well, yes, I’ve read four sentences about how the Mars-lander was able to take a solid, ice-like material, and turn it into water (H2O), but I know absolutely nothing more about the topic.
So what do I do? Stop reading link lists? Perhaps.
But then what about blogs? More often than not blog posts by friends, family, or even those related to the industry I work in do little more than entertain, catch me up on “the news”, or completely distract me from what I should be doing. Very, very rarely have I found a blog post to be wholly beneficial to have in my brain.
Think about it. When was the last time you remembered a blog post, in its entirety, to solve a problem you encountered. Right away you’re probably thinking about a problem you had with your iPhone, or some sort of electronic device, that you fixed because you read a blog post about it. That may be true. But couldn’t you have found that information by doing a quick Google search?
Since the Egyptians began beating up papyrus plants some 5,000+ years ago humans have used “books” ((Paper based products like scrolls, books, and loose-leaf paper included.)) so why should I be any different? I really enjoy reading books. The tangibleness of a book is much better than reading on-screen, which is part of it, but the other part is the wholeness of books. It is an entire work in one spot. Blog posts, for the most part, are just pieces of ideas and opinions about a given topic rather than an explanation about an entire topic. More often than not they take for granted the fact that the reader understands the topic being discussed (perhaps due to context or just because it is something that is considered general knowledge by the audience).
So do I unsubscribe from every-single-blog, shutdown my computer, and just go to a library every time I need to learn something? I’d say absolutely not. But I do think there is a balance and I’m going to work at striking it.
I will see the occasional article title and decide rifle through it for pertinent information to “feel” up to speed, but I’ll announce in conversation I know nothing more than that the event actually happened. Most of the blogs or sites I subscribe to are very focused in information, being mainly movie industry news and the like, or those of friends. So it’s easier to follow and digest. I’ve found myself being pickier about what I read more and more. If it doesn’t immediately sound of interest to me, I will not read it.
Since I’ve had a computer in front of me most of the time, I tend to read articles and posts throughout my day. However, once a routine sets in, I generally have a big morning read, checking e-mail and as many articles as I have in my RSS feeds, and then I do the same thing at night. Start my day and finish my day with internet browsing and reading.
Closing up shop and heading to the library seems a little reactionary.
I dropped by this post specifically because I thought you were going to talk about books. I read books. I read many books. Call me prejudiced for thinking that reading blog entries and link aggregation sites does not constitute “reading”.
Nonetheless, I agree with your premise. I think there is even more of a dangerous edge to it than you’ve outlined.
In addition to reading little bits about everything and not gaining a solid foundation in any discipline, you’re also exposing yourself to the echo chamber of the blogosphere. Think about the last time you talked to a blogging Luddite – someone who doesn’t write them, doesn’t read them, doesn’t care about them – and you’ll see that the world is rife with topics that are poorly covered online or when they are, they’re so sharply opinionated as to obscure leagues of relevant information, not not mention alternate opinion.
All that said, I think that I don’t read quite enough material online to keep up with the Joneses. I’ve got Amazon boxes coming in once or twice a week, and subscriptions to a couple of key news magazines. I could probably stand to augment that with some online news sources. I’m happy with my RSS reading now, down to about 30 feeds, of which about a third are aggregate feeds from multiple sites about specific topics I have interest in, rather than any specific blogs.
I’ve had a very similar experience over the past year or so. I catch myself in conversations and in tying, feeling dumber and dumber. I know more on a wide variety of topics but seem to be watering down any substantial knowledge of one or two given ideas.
I’ll get into conversations and do the same thing, “hey did you hear about”, and then I get asked, “what do you know about it…”. Which usually follows with, “well I was reading online (2 paragraphs in) and moved on.
A few weekends ago, I put down the laptop and picked up some books. It felt good to read again. There’s something nice about picking up a bound book and holding it in your hands. Maybe it’s just me. I think it really is a balancing of new and old media.
I’ve started carrying books around with me, in case I have a moment to hide away in a corner during the day and get a few pages in.
To add a little new tech to the old, I’m using GoodReads (http://goodreads.com) website to keep a list of the books I want to read, am reading and have read.