How long could you sit in a library and study? I think that’s an intriguing question for anyone who is a non-student at their current stage of life.
Try it out. Stroll down to your local library. Leave you cell phone at home. No distractions. Browse around. Find some magazines. Pull out a book. Read. See if you can last four hours.
Will boredom set in? Will you get antsy? Do you start daydreaming? Do you find yourself thinking about all the chores back home you need to get done or all the errands you should run?
Most likely, those thoughts will rip through your head because your concentration only lasts so long reading the book or magazine. You’ll put what you are reading down and start thinking about something else.
Our ability to focus on reading or spending significant time doing an in-depth analysis on a project is something that seems to be going away. Our attention spans have shrunk from reading newspapers to reading shorter stories like those in USA TODAY, to watching snippets of images on TV to tweeting and snap chatting pictures and phrases. Brevity abounds. Lengthy concentration ceases to exist.
A by-product is that we don’t look as deeply into the world as we used to. We give an object, issue, project or problem a brief moment of attention, then move onto what’s next. We don’t solve or resolve anything that way. Shorter attention spans mean we raise our ire, then never figure out how to get rid of that feeling. We’re left irritated and angry on a regular basis.
Who wants to read Sartre or Nietzsche when they can read Dave Simon? I provide bubble gum for the mind. Sartre and Nietzsche provide an expertly cooked seven course meal, with dessert, that requires all your taste buds. My writing is something you can chew and spit out.
It’s not to say figuring things out quickly or sometimes immediately discarding a piece of non-pertinent information isn’t worthwhile. We have to rid our brains of some data some we can absorb the new.
No, the issue to me is more about our collective loss (or perhaps it’s lack of desire) of looking more deeply into issues to find solutions. We don’t allocate extra time to concentrate, and quite frankly, as a species, we have a strong laziness gene. If we can do it easier, we take that path.
I do it all the time. Just witness situations where you could walk or ride your bike somewhere, but you choose to use your car. That’s not always laziness, but sometimes it is. You could argue it’s about convenience or speed. Regardless, it’s a shortcut, and we often take the shortcuts.
Another part of the equation other than laziness, I believe, is our lack of curiosity. We don’t care to really know what is going on. We’d rather eat Doritos and watch the Dallas Cowboys game on television than learn why quantum mechanics helps explain our very existence or if a time machine is built, it most likely will not allow travel back past the time the machine was invented (a theory recently advanced by physicists).
Those are complicated issues requiring a brain investment and we’d rather turn our minds off than turn them on and plug them in. We are just animals. We’re looking for a quality meal, security and soft, hungry lips to kiss.
Now head to the library. Find a cubicle and a good book. See how long you can read it before you fall asleep.
Try it out. Stroll down to your local library. Leave you cell phone at home. No distractions. Browse around. Find some magazines. Pull out a book. Read. See if you can last four hours.
Will boredom set in? Will you get antsy? Do you start daydreaming? Do you find yourself thinking about all the chores back home you need to get done or all the errands you should run?
Most likely, those thoughts will rip through your head because your concentration only lasts so long reading the book or magazine. You’ll put what you are reading down and start thinking about something else.
Our ability to focus on reading or spending significant time doing an in-depth analysis on a project is something that seems to be going away. Our attention spans have shrunk from reading newspapers to reading shorter stories like those in USA TODAY, to watching snippets of images on TV to tweeting and snap chatting pictures and phrases. Brevity abounds. Lengthy concentration ceases to exist.
A by-product is that we don’t look as deeply into the world as we used to. We give an object, issue, project or problem a brief moment of attention, then move onto what’s next. We don’t solve or resolve anything that way. Shorter attention spans mean we raise our ire, then never figure out how to get rid of that feeling. We’re left irritated and angry on a regular basis.
Who wants to read Sartre or Nietzsche when they can read Dave Simon? I provide bubble gum for the mind. Sartre and Nietzsche provide an expertly cooked seven course meal, with dessert, that requires all your taste buds. My writing is something you can chew and spit out.
It’s not to say figuring things out quickly or sometimes immediately discarding a piece of non-pertinent information isn’t worthwhile. We have to rid our brains of some data some we can absorb the new.
No, the issue to me is more about our collective loss (or perhaps it’s lack of desire) of looking more deeply into issues to find solutions. We don’t allocate extra time to concentrate, and quite frankly, as a species, we have a strong laziness gene. If we can do it easier, we take that path.
I do it all the time. Just witness situations where you could walk or ride your bike somewhere, but you choose to use your car. That’s not always laziness, but sometimes it is. You could argue it’s about convenience or speed. Regardless, it’s a shortcut, and we often take the shortcuts.
Another part of the equation other than laziness, I believe, is our lack of curiosity. We don’t care to really know what is going on. We’d rather eat Doritos and watch the Dallas Cowboys game on television than learn why quantum mechanics helps explain our very existence or if a time machine is built, it most likely will not allow travel back past the time the machine was invented (a theory recently advanced by physicists).
Those are complicated issues requiring a brain investment and we’d rather turn our minds off than turn them on and plug them in. We are just animals. We’re looking for a quality meal, security and soft, hungry lips to kiss.
Now head to the library. Find a cubicle and a good book. See how long you can read it before you fall asleep.
