Is it my imagination or is there a tremendous amount of functional illiteracy around these days? “Illiteracy” means you can’t read. “Functional illiteracy” means that, although you can read the words, you have difficulty understanding the meaning of the text.
Is it functional illiteracy, not having the time to read, wanting to talk so much you can’t be bothered to read, or just not giving a damn?
What venue are you referencing. Email and blogs are notorious for not conveying real meaning
Trust me.
People read … selectively. I’m occasionally embarrassed to notice, a week or two after pounding someone for a comment, that I had not read their words carefully, and reacted not to whatever point they were making but to my misconception of what they were saying.
Of course, this happens to me as well. I’m prone to use hyperbole and sarcasm in my comments, and I ought to have learned by now that those are not easily deciphered by most internet readers, but ….
The major thing, it strikes me, is that most comments and posts on the internet are extremely short. It’s hard to establish a context for what we’re reading, hard to glimpse the eluded portions of an argument, hard to be certain about who is supposed to be the audience for someone’s remarks, etc. This lends itself to misinterpretation
TL;DR: It’s not my fault!
I do as much reading as I ever did, but I admit that my reading has changed. Fewer novels and formal written works, more short non-fiction and informal written works.
A lot of people have noticed that with the rise of social media has come an inability to concentrate on reading. I used to be an exceptionally fast reader with excellent retention, but I now find it difficult to read a book. Getting info in tiny bites trains the brain to accept only tiny bites.
I think it began earlier than social media. Nearly 50 years ago I watched the very first broadcast of Sesame Street with a group of linguists. After the program we discussed what we had seen. We agreed that it was an important development but that it would have unforeseen consequences, specifically, lowering attention spans.
If you look under the category “Visualcy” in my sidebar, you’ll see that I’ve posted on the likely consequences of an environment in which visual communication is the prevalent modality. Among those consequences is a reduced ability to engage in abstract reasoning or follow an abstract argument and increasingly agonistic modes of expression. You can see it all around you.
That is not to say that communicating in sound bites doesn’t reduce the brain’s ability to process thoughts that are greater than a sound bite in length. I don’t honestly know. I’ll look around for scholarship on the subject.
Ben put it better than I did.
I would add there is a lot more competition for our attention these days and we still have our hunter-gatherer biology where our brains psychologically privilege certain things. It’s a difficult thing realize much less resist.
http://leadershipconfessions.typepad.com/leadership_confessions/2011/01/visualcy-the-third.html
On the other hand, who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?
Just to be clear, the advice I would give to journalists is do your homework, don’t get out in front of the story, and for goodness sake don’t become the story. Give Trump a fair hearing without your assumptions festooning your story. The unembroidered facts will tell your story better than a ten times daily outraged editorial.
That’s sound counsel, Dave. But they are playing a different game.
Still read 2-3 books a week, time allowing. More if on vacation and staying home.
Steve
steve,
That is what my wife does. She reads nothing but fiction – for her, it’s her wind-down time. Thank goodness for the Kindle.
Amen to the Kindle. On my 4th one. So much cheaper and convenient. Easier to keep track of authors when you are reading multiple series.
Steve