From "How to survive the age of distraction" (The Independent, June 24):
"What I'm struggling with," he writes, "is the encroachment of the buzz, the sense that there's something out there that merits my attention."I'm not so sure it was the laptop thrumming on the other side of the room that had reduced the time I spent with books. No, I suspect it was something rather like what Neil Gaiman experienced (hat tip to Melissa; see the comments of my Kindle post):
I think most of us have this sense today, if we are honest. If you read a book with your laptop thrumming on the other side of the room, it can be like trying to read in the middle of a party, where everyone is shouting to each other. To read, you need to slow down. You need mental silence except for the words. That's getting harder to find. [Emphasis added.]
It’s the fact that my eyesight is no longer comfortable with tiny lettering and word balloons. And that simply fascinated me. And fascinated me because I realized that technology is normally driven by the young, and leaves the old and my generation on the sidelines going, "We don’t know what we think about this." Except the Kindle and Kindle technology, which is absolutely being discovered by my age and up from people who are going, “You mean I don’t have to buy large-print books? I can just set the font wherever I like? This is great.” And all these people you expect to be going, “I do not want this modern newfangled thing,” are going, “I have a house full of books I can’t read anymore. This thing is magic.”
4 comments:
One of the reasons I wanted a Kindle was that 'buzz'.
I had been reading on the Kindle for iPhone app on my iPod for the past year or so, but I was always distracted by the thought that I should be checking my email, since it's *right here*. One click, one tap of the same screen I'm reading from and I will know if the client received and reviewed the proof I sent earlier, or if the invoice I've been waiting for showed up in my inbox since I last checked.
The iPod also carries my calendar and a text message app.
I think I will better be able to focus on my reading without all those distractions on the same device.
We must be sharing the same reading room?!
Did you ever read DeLillo's White Noise?
I never thought I buy a Kindle, but I pulled out an old Penguin classic for a read only to re-shelve the book because the darn print was too small.
Always a pleasure to read your posts.
Iris
After receiving more complaints than ever *from English majors* on student evaluations that my courses require too much reading, I am preparing a lecture for the start of fall semester on how to read a book. Turning off digital distractions is absolutely necessary!
I agree and find that my Kindle is best for nightime reading when small print is an impossibilty! I am more apt to remove myself from the buzz as well if I read in another room than where my laptop is located at the moment :)
I liked the Gaiman article too, thanks.
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