How interested are we when it comes to actually sitting down to read a paragraph? Do you find yourself incredibly frustrated when you've been given an assignment with tons and tons to look at and absorb? I went through this every night as I tried my best to float through three English classes in college. Not only did I destroy my GPA with such a poor decision, I also destroyed my life-long relationship with reading for enjoyment. It would be silly to blame my poor choice as the total reason, however. I've come to find myself as a certified "fidget" when it's time to stare at paragraphs of information that's either online or in a book. SHOULD that be the demeanor of someone fighting for a BA in English? How would the great masters feel? How do they feel in general, watching us mere mortals roll our eyes at long paragraphs? When did it become so uncool to take the time to read and comprehend the thoughts of other people? If it's longer than three paragraphs, is it really murder?
As a child, it was drilled into my head that reading was incredibly important. If you couldn't read, you were stupid and were in for a world full of trouble. I thought it would be scary not to be able to read. With a mother who was a teacher, I never had that problem. Sure, I had an odd time with soft and strong vowel sounds, but I was able to read by the time I was two. I'm pretty sure a lot of kids begin to formulate their reading skills around that age. So how is it that the girl who wanted to read everything turned into the irritated woman who needs to collect her thoughts and herself before getting down with the words? Like many people in this digital age, it all started with computers. Suddenly, we just don't have time for it anymore. It's rather frightening, to be honest.
The digital age we live in is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, if you need quick information, you've got sites like Google and Bing to help you out. Quick reference sites like Wikipedia give you a taste of information (which can be easily edited...) to place one on the right informational track. On the other hand, it creates a hardcore line of laziness. Why bother going to the library or the bookstore to get a book when you can download it onto a Kindle or flip through it with a PC e-book program? Oh, you're in luck--Google Books has a copy of the very thing you're looking for.
I hate to admit this, but when I've been unable to get a book online, I actually cringe at the thought of having to go to the library to physically get something. It's a rather ugly thought because I DO honestly love books. I love thumbing through pages, getting lost in paragraphs of a good African-American novel or a tale about a world-renowned figure of some kind. I have boxes and boxes of books in my home. So, what is the problem? There are so many questions but not enough answers.
When I was fourteen, my Internet was 56k and limited. Just like most curious perverts, I went right for the boobs and naked girls. I not only got viruses and spyware and trojans, I found a digital drug. There were chatrooms and message boards, blogs and video sites and emails from old friends. I slowly stepped up from the timid user to the young girl who could type 49 WPM with her eyes closed. I was a webcam user, an erotic story writer, and a fool trying to make a buck online by giving my email address to a lot of callous companies. Somewhere in-between that time, I began to develop a low tolerance for long paragraphs. If it wasn't interesting, I had a hard time reading it.
I was interested in six things through the ages of fourteen to sixteen--Prince, astrology, poetry, Alicia Keys, MSN Groups, and finding some random guy to love me. When I was fifteen, I started looking for love spells and Wiccan stuff. School was okay and I loved my English class. I honestly didn't have too much of a hard time getting through assingments. With books to read like Frankenstein, Song of Solomon, and Three Theban Plays, my mind was pretty busy. For me, the actual low-tolerance didn't really kick in until I graduated. When I got to college, the majority of my work was Internet-related.
The convenience of working with material online was great. I could write my thoughts down in a document file as I read articles. I still had to use books, but my professors were crazy about reading online. Documents, message board feedback--it was all new and online. I'd spend the rest of my college career doing this. I'd spend my off time doing the same thing. There was always some new thing to research, some new set of lyrics to look up, and some random trivial fact to scan over. With my newfound "computer eyes", I found myself counting paragraphs and grunting. Reading was no longer a pleasure--it was work to be done to get a good grade. Interesting or not, I hated it if the point wasn't right there within the first two paragraphs.
I began to develop some bad habits with this. When you're going for a BA in English, the last thing you need to do is skip the details. The ones who have been there before you--the professors with their MASTER'S, will single you out on this. Boy howdy, did they ever single this lady out. My bad habits went this way--scan, scan some more. Find some sentences that support your argument and read the paragraph. Does it make sense? Read some of the paragraph before it. Read a little after. Flip a few pages/scroll down/whatever until you reach the end. Read from the end on up. Jump around a bit. This formula got me all kinds of grades from strong As and Check-pluses to Funky Cs and ugly Fs. I just didn't have time to read everything, you know? I had other stuff and other classes to tackle. Oh yeah, and I was a big girl trying to find her BBW loving prince. The college thing? Oh, that was so I could be educated and get paid the big bucks. What a messy formula!
The amount of laziness may differ from person to person. There are a lot of people who don't suffer from the low points of the digital age at all. A good lot of us would be pretty screwed if the Internet was just simply "over" tomorrow, however. How could we go back to reading actual books, getting on the horn to call people, and...gasp....writing letters?! It may seem really stupid and simple to ask questions or to think like that. Again, the amount of versatility may vary from person to person. But if you had to put down that Blackberry and ditch that iPad, could you really do it?
It's frightening to me as both a writer-in-training, and a young woman looking back at other generations behind me. With things like "TL;DR" rotating around, is there hope left? Are people bored with long-winded bloggers and writers? If we aren't always short, snippy, and with pictures, are we doomed? What about the younger students of this day? They're Googling for answers that are quick--rather than searching for those that are content-rich. Some struggle with a few paragraphs of information! Some...well....don't get me started with the copy and paste. Is this what we're reduced to? Oh, we've got time.If you've got the time to Tweet about how ugly or stupid someone is, you've got the same amount to sit down and read. If you want to get the best out of your education when it comes to research, you've got the time to read.
In my personal time, I've been watching one young lady under my "care". She is the prime example of a Modern-Day student with issues of reading for answers. Where it might take me about a four minutes to get through a short paragraph and get the facts down, it took her an entire hour and a half. It was shocking to me because the paragraph wasn't even half a page. The information was there, but she wanted some kind of straight shot to get it. The 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) were nowhere to be found in her method. I stood over her and read the article quickly, formulating answers to questions on her sheet. When I asked her questions, she'd get smart. She'd ask "where is..." and "how is...", only to later admit she hadn't read word one for content. How many children are doing this? Not all, I'm sure. Let me just put it this way--you can skim, you can copy and paste, but you're taking away from the lesson. You're taking away from the habits you need to develop. At some point, you will crash and burn writing and formulating this way. Maybe not, who knows. Maybe you're so good at it that you just get As no matter what kind of drivel you write. Still, wouldn't it be better to learn and to hone the skill than to skate by?
The pros and cons of being a modern-day student seem to be neck and neck with one another. it is indeed wonderful that we can digitize, collaborate, and share ideas without necessarily having to be in the same room. It saves paper to hand in reports through the inbox and so forth. Bus fare and gas fare can be saved by college libraries featuring online articles and books. Yet, for every line of innovation and change, the acceptance becomes reliance. The reliance can sometimes become an ugly, lazy mound. Someday, we might all end up back at the fireside telling oral histories. Our Kindles will become coasters and the iPad might just be a paperweight.
As a child, it was drilled into my head that reading was incredibly important. If you couldn't read, you were stupid and were in for a world full of trouble. I thought it would be scary not to be able to read. With a mother who was a teacher, I never had that problem. Sure, I had an odd time with soft and strong vowel sounds, but I was able to read by the time I was two. I'm pretty sure a lot of kids begin to formulate their reading skills around that age. So how is it that the girl who wanted to read everything turned into the irritated woman who needs to collect her thoughts and herself before getting down with the words? Like many people in this digital age, it all started with computers. Suddenly, we just don't have time for it anymore. It's rather frightening, to be honest.
The digital age we live in is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, if you need quick information, you've got sites like Google and Bing to help you out. Quick reference sites like Wikipedia give you a taste of information (which can be easily edited...) to place one on the right informational track. On the other hand, it creates a hardcore line of laziness. Why bother going to the library or the bookstore to get a book when you can download it onto a Kindle or flip through it with a PC e-book program? Oh, you're in luck--Google Books has a copy of the very thing you're looking for.
I hate to admit this, but when I've been unable to get a book online, I actually cringe at the thought of having to go to the library to physically get something. It's a rather ugly thought because I DO honestly love books. I love thumbing through pages, getting lost in paragraphs of a good African-American novel or a tale about a world-renowned figure of some kind. I have boxes and boxes of books in my home. So, what is the problem? There are so many questions but not enough answers.
When I was fourteen, my Internet was 56k and limited. Just like most curious perverts, I went right for the boobs and naked girls. I not only got viruses and spyware and trojans, I found a digital drug. There were chatrooms and message boards, blogs and video sites and emails from old friends. I slowly stepped up from the timid user to the young girl who could type 49 WPM with her eyes closed. I was a webcam user, an erotic story writer, and a fool trying to make a buck online by giving my email address to a lot of callous companies. Somewhere in-between that time, I began to develop a low tolerance for long paragraphs. If it wasn't interesting, I had a hard time reading it.
I was interested in six things through the ages of fourteen to sixteen--Prince, astrology, poetry, Alicia Keys, MSN Groups, and finding some random guy to love me. When I was fifteen, I started looking for love spells and Wiccan stuff. School was okay and I loved my English class. I honestly didn't have too much of a hard time getting through assingments. With books to read like Frankenstein, Song of Solomon, and Three Theban Plays, my mind was pretty busy. For me, the actual low-tolerance didn't really kick in until I graduated. When I got to college, the majority of my work was Internet-related.
The convenience of working with material online was great. I could write my thoughts down in a document file as I read articles. I still had to use books, but my professors were crazy about reading online. Documents, message board feedback--it was all new and online. I'd spend the rest of my college career doing this. I'd spend my off time doing the same thing. There was always some new thing to research, some new set of lyrics to look up, and some random trivial fact to scan over. With my newfound "computer eyes", I found myself counting paragraphs and grunting. Reading was no longer a pleasure--it was work to be done to get a good grade. Interesting or not, I hated it if the point wasn't right there within the first two paragraphs.
I began to develop some bad habits with this. When you're going for a BA in English, the last thing you need to do is skip the details. The ones who have been there before you--the professors with their MASTER'S, will single you out on this. Boy howdy, did they ever single this lady out. My bad habits went this way--scan, scan some more. Find some sentences that support your argument and read the paragraph. Does it make sense? Read some of the paragraph before it. Read a little after. Flip a few pages/scroll down/whatever until you reach the end. Read from the end on up. Jump around a bit. This formula got me all kinds of grades from strong As and Check-pluses to Funky Cs and ugly Fs. I just didn't have time to read everything, you know? I had other stuff and other classes to tackle. Oh yeah, and I was a big girl trying to find her BBW loving prince. The college thing? Oh, that was so I could be educated and get paid the big bucks. What a messy formula!
The amount of laziness may differ from person to person. There are a lot of people who don't suffer from the low points of the digital age at all. A good lot of us would be pretty screwed if the Internet was just simply "over" tomorrow, however. How could we go back to reading actual books, getting on the horn to call people, and...gasp....writing letters?! It may seem really stupid and simple to ask questions or to think like that. Again, the amount of versatility may vary from person to person. But if you had to put down that Blackberry and ditch that iPad, could you really do it?
It's frightening to me as both a writer-in-training, and a young woman looking back at other generations behind me. With things like "TL;DR" rotating around, is there hope left? Are people bored with long-winded bloggers and writers? If we aren't always short, snippy, and with pictures, are we doomed? What about the younger students of this day? They're Googling for answers that are quick--rather than searching for those that are content-rich. Some struggle with a few paragraphs of information! Some...well....don't get me started with the copy and paste. Is this what we're reduced to? Oh, we've got time.If you've got the time to Tweet about how ugly or stupid someone is, you've got the same amount to sit down and read. If you want to get the best out of your education when it comes to research, you've got the time to read.
In my personal time, I've been watching one young lady under my "care". She is the prime example of a Modern-Day student with issues of reading for answers. Where it might take me about a four minutes to get through a short paragraph and get the facts down, it took her an entire hour and a half. It was shocking to me because the paragraph wasn't even half a page. The information was there, but she wanted some kind of straight shot to get it. The 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) were nowhere to be found in her method. I stood over her and read the article quickly, formulating answers to questions on her sheet. When I asked her questions, she'd get smart. She'd ask "where is..." and "how is...", only to later admit she hadn't read word one for content. How many children are doing this? Not all, I'm sure. Let me just put it this way--you can skim, you can copy and paste, but you're taking away from the lesson. You're taking away from the habits you need to develop. At some point, you will crash and burn writing and formulating this way. Maybe not, who knows. Maybe you're so good at it that you just get As no matter what kind of drivel you write. Still, wouldn't it be better to learn and to hone the skill than to skate by?
The pros and cons of being a modern-day student seem to be neck and neck with one another. it is indeed wonderful that we can digitize, collaborate, and share ideas without necessarily having to be in the same room. It saves paper to hand in reports through the inbox and so forth. Bus fare and gas fare can be saved by college libraries featuring online articles and books. Yet, for every line of innovation and change, the acceptance becomes reliance. The reliance can sometimes become an ugly, lazy mound. Someday, we might all end up back at the fireside telling oral histories. Our Kindles will become coasters and the iPad might just be a paperweight.