{"id":319,"date":"2010-07-07T16:26:27","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T00:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisabravermoss.wordpress.com\/?p=319"},"modified":"2022-06-10T16:42:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T16:42:56","slug":"with-the-right-way-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/","title":{"rendered":"The Right Way to Read"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to a recent S. F. Chronicle<\/em> article by journalist Nicholas Carr (6\/20\/10), electronic media are eroding our ability to comprehend the written word.\u00a0 Unlike printed material, text on a screen must compete with all the other visual stimuli that pop up on our computers.\u00a0 Because of this, Carr argues, screen technologies are removing us from \u201cthe profound intellectual engagement of deep reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m all for thoughtful inquiry into how screen reading might affect our comprehension and analytical capabilities. \u00a0But I find Carr\u2019s ideas silly.\u00a0 What is \u201cdeep\u201d reading?\u00a0 Is it the one right<\/em> way to read?\u00a0 If I don\u2019t read that way, am I automatically excluded from the Society of Profound Thinkers and Other Morally Superior People?<\/p>\n

How would Carr recommend that I handle my inability to sit still and do only one thing for hours on end?\u00a0 Clearly I\u2019m committing a crime against literacy when I alternate among various reading and writing tasks so as not to feel overwhelmed by any one of them.<\/p>\n

Case in point: as I\u2019m tinkering with this essay, I\u2019m also reading a 6\/28\/10 New York Times<\/em> piece in which author John Tierney argues that mind-wandering has a kind of \u201cincubation effect\u201d on the imaginative process.\u00a0 Apparently, people whose minds wander score higher on creativity tests than those with a longer attention span.\u00a0 I like this guy already.<\/p>\n

Tierney explains that people typically notice up to three episodes of mind-wandering per half-hour of reading a printed novel.\u00a0 And when researchers interrupted readers to ask whether they were thinking about their book at a particular moment, subjects reported about ten percent of the time that their thoughts were elsewhere.<\/p>\n

So much for Carr\u2019s assertion that \u201ca book provides a shield against distraction, allowing us to focus our entire attention on an author\u2019s narrative or argument.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course our reading patterns are changing as screen technologies evolve.\u00a0 But preachy statements like \u201cthe original genius of the book, as a technology, was its profound lack of excitement\u201d won\u2019t stem the tide.\u00a0 Nor does this hand-wringing seem entirely honest.\u00a0 Does Carr really believe it\u2019s a bad thing that we can now click on a link to background information while reading a newspaper article online?<\/p>\n

Carr\u2019s panic is not universally shared in the literary world.\u00a0 The prestigious online magazine Narrative<\/em> recently put out a call for submissions for a new genre that it created, the iPoem.\u00a0 Encouraging \u201cthe poet\u2019s awareness of how the new media affect, for instance, the line in poetry,\u201d Narrative<\/em> is actively seeking to publish poems that fit within no more than two screens on the iPhone.<\/p>\n

As for good books, they\u2019re still a thrill like no other\u2014isn\u2019t this the point?\u00a0 Books still enable many people to share in a common experience, each coming away with his or her own unique set of responses\u2014and something to discuss.<\/p>\n

Books were not designed as a tool for legislating properly \u201cdeep\u201d thinking.\u00a0 They certainly shouldn\u2019t be used to justify the smug condemnation of other ways of learning.<\/p>\n

Published in The Piedmont Post<\/em>, July 7, 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a recent S. F. Chronicle article by journalist Nicholas Carr (6\/20\/10), electronic media are eroding our ability to comprehend the written word.\u00a0 Unlike printed material, text on a screen must compete with all the other visual stimuli that pop up on our computers.\u00a0 Because of this, Carr argues, screen technologies are removing us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143],"yoast_head":"\nThe Right Way to Read - Lisa Braver Moss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Right Way to Read - Lisa Braver Moss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to a recent S. F. Chronicle article by journalist Nicholas Carr (6\/20\/10), electronic media are eroding our ability to comprehend the written word.\u00a0 Unlike printed material, text on a screen must compete with all the other visual stimuli that pop up on our computers.\u00a0 Because of this, Carr argues, screen technologies are removing us…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lisa Braver Moss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-08T00:26:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-10T16:42:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lisa Braver Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lisa Braver Moss\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/\",\"name\":\"The Right Way to Read - Lisa Braver Moss\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-08T00:26:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-10T16:42:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/#\/schema\/person\/99a2ac9706b22007bf5913f9f0bd9765\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Right Way to Read\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/\",\"name\":\"Lisa Braver Moss\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/#\/schema\/person\/99a2ac9706b22007bf5913f9f0bd9765\",\"name\":\"Lisa Braver Moss\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/050c2063403f3181c2a85711d1aafafc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/050c2063403f3181c2a85711d1aafafc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lisa Braver Moss\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/author\/lisabravermoss\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Right Way to Read - Lisa Braver Moss","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/with-the-right-way-to-read\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Right Way to Read - Lisa Braver Moss","og_description":"According to a recent S. 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