Reading books, long stories in newspapers or magazines appears to be a goner. Most people don’t do it anymore.
We get our news in bursts through social media outlets or 8-second blurbs on TV. Our attention span reacts accordingly, shortening up.
I recently sent a lengthy article from the newspaper to a close friend. He replied, “This is too long. I won’t read it. Give me the summary.” So, I did.
But, I shouldn’t have had to do that. Sending the article to him implied it had a high level of interesting and insightful points. Reading it would have kept him engaged.
Sadly, this is but one of many examples along these lines I could cite. Several years back, a coworker was riding with me in a car and stated something that made absolutely no sense based on analyzing news coverage at the time. Another coworker challenged his perspective, asking, “Don’t you read?”
His reply was, “No. I just look at social media.”
Reading lengthier writing (fiction or non-fiction) is a growing part of my life these days. I do it to relax, entertain, learn. It’s become a staple during certain periods of the day, with many benefits.
Most importantly, good lengthy writing absorbs your attention span and forces you to step outside yourself. That means you think. You dig into the storyline.
Through that process, you also relax. This, to me, has become the huge selling point to read more and more – you reduce personal stress.
I find myself calmer, taking time to think through the plot or the actions, working my way through what is happening in a novel or determining the main take-aways in a piece of non-fiction. All of those benefits help me stay sane in our fast-paced and crazy world.
Savoring a book means you taste it. You inhale it. For example, I recently finished “Woman Last Seen,” by Adele Parks, and “Free Love” by Tessa Hadley. There’s that cliché line about, “I couldn’t put the book down.”
I haven’t been able to say that about any book in a long time, despite having read a lot in any given year. What Parks’ and Hadley’s novels did was build suspense, keep you guessing, push you to figure out what the next twist would be. Beyond that, each compelled you to turn the pages. You did not want to put either down.
There’s a lot to be said for any type of entertainment that so thoroughly grabs your attention span and locks you into your easy chair. When you consider all the options available today to distract your attention span, it’s not hard to see why reading is declining, particularly material that requires deeper thought and concentration.
We live in a fast-paced world, from the cars we drive to the speed of information transferal. Reading lengthy pieces slows you down. It takes you away from the attention-seeking swirl of images, slogans, logos and snippets of words.
When’s the last time you couldn’t put a book down? It’s happened to me twice in the past month, and I can’t wait to find that magic again. Keep seeking.
We get our news in bursts through social media outlets or 8-second blurbs on TV. Our attention span reacts accordingly, shortening up.
I recently sent a lengthy article from the newspaper to a close friend. He replied, “This is too long. I won’t read it. Give me the summary.” So, I did.
But, I shouldn’t have had to do that. Sending the article to him implied it had a high level of interesting and insightful points. Reading it would have kept him engaged.
Sadly, this is but one of many examples along these lines I could cite. Several years back, a coworker was riding with me in a car and stated something that made absolutely no sense based on analyzing news coverage at the time. Another coworker challenged his perspective, asking, “Don’t you read?”
His reply was, “No. I just look at social media.”
Reading lengthier writing (fiction or non-fiction) is a growing part of my life these days. I do it to relax, entertain, learn. It’s become a staple during certain periods of the day, with many benefits.
Most importantly, good lengthy writing absorbs your attention span and forces you to step outside yourself. That means you think. You dig into the storyline.
Through that process, you also relax. This, to me, has become the huge selling point to read more and more – you reduce personal stress.
I find myself calmer, taking time to think through the plot or the actions, working my way through what is happening in a novel or determining the main take-aways in a piece of non-fiction. All of those benefits help me stay sane in our fast-paced and crazy world.
Savoring a book means you taste it. You inhale it. For example, I recently finished “Woman Last Seen,” by Adele Parks, and “Free Love” by Tessa Hadley. There’s that cliché line about, “I couldn’t put the book down.”
I haven’t been able to say that about any book in a long time, despite having read a lot in any given year. What Parks’ and Hadley’s novels did was build suspense, keep you guessing, push you to figure out what the next twist would be. Beyond that, each compelled you to turn the pages. You did not want to put either down.
There’s a lot to be said for any type of entertainment that so thoroughly grabs your attention span and locks you into your easy chair. When you consider all the options available today to distract your attention span, it’s not hard to see why reading is declining, particularly material that requires deeper thought and concentration.
We live in a fast-paced world, from the cars we drive to the speed of information transferal. Reading lengthy pieces slows you down. It takes you away from the attention-seeking swirl of images, slogans, logos and snippets of words.
When’s the last time you couldn’t put a book down? It’s happened to me twice in the past month, and I can’t wait to find that magic again. Keep seeking.