The downside of Kindle

So, a brief Google search turned up the piece I was referring to, the one about why the rise of Kindle and its kin is not necessarily a good thing. 'Twas in an Atlantic Monthly article called "Resisting Kindle." (Birket is something of a prophet on these sort of matters, having written a book in the 90s called The Guttenburg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age.)

Why there are no paragraphs

Google has changed their Blogger website with a lot of fancy new stuff. Only problem is, I can't make paragraphs now. Tried over and over with the preceding post.

Let me try again. Is this a new paragraph?

The Pleasures of Reading in An Age of Distraction

I read the above book (by Wheaton College English prof Alan Jacobs) a few months ago and it is the sort of thing I ordinarily would post about here, for it is a fine and relevant book. However, I found myself so distracted by the world and life that I never got around to it.

Anyhow, in the book Jacobs tells how earnest former students sometimes ask him for a list of books they should be reading. But he refuses, telling them, in essence, to "go out and read what you enjoy." That's what it's all about--that's how it should be. Reading should be a joy, not work or a burden, and even fiction written for sheer entertainment can be part of a healthy reading diet.

Essentially I agree with this since those books I have mastered and incorporated into my memory bank (to some extent) have been those I have enjoyed. Dull material I was forced to read for an examination was, as a rule, material I have forgotten.

Having said that, it also is true that the way I have come across those most enjoyable books usually has been due to the recommendation of people whose views I respect. It might be through a book review, a web post, a newspaper column, or a radio or TV interview with the author himself or herself. Furthermore, I have come across treasures simply because, through education, I was taught "this author is among the best." At one point in my life I needed to find books capable of distracting yet nourishing my mind for hours on end (we had limited TV access at the time, a good thing I think). Immediately, thanks to schools, teachers and other sources, I thought of Charles Dickens and over a period of years worked my way through a dozen or so of his best works. Repeatedly I found myself entertained, uplifted, and/or stimulated, and if I ever got bored would remind myself, "This is a famous Dickens novel. It'll get better." Nearly always, it did. (Exception: I never could get into Hard Times.) Jacobs comments on another topic of importance in this day and age, namely that of electronic readers made by Kindle, Sony or whoever. Is reading a book on them the same as reading a codex book (an old-fashioned one made with paper and ink)? Jacobs, as it turns out, likes his Kindle a lot, finding it nicer than carrying around armloads of books) and credits it with refiring his reading habit. My own thoughts on readers (got one in February) are more complex. Not sure if I actually read more with mine than I would with the same book in print since I always have to subtract time spent playing with it or uploading more free classic works (largely because they are free). On the other hand, once the novelty wears off maybe I will find the gadget simply to be a great supplemental item that could save me a lot of suitcase room and weight on my next plane trip. I recently read other ideas on this topic, written by a thoughtful commentator, to the effect that Kindle reading is not at all the same as reading the same book in print. If I come across the piece again, I will provide a link here...

The "digital explosion" and you

Yet another book about the digital age, but from a distinctly Christian perspective is called The Next Story: Life and Faith After The Digital Explosion, by Tim Chailles. I'd become aware of Chailles years ago as one of the most successful Christian bloggers, someone getting 15-20,000 "hits" every day. He's also a thinker, amateur theologian, omniverous reader, pastor, and authentic "techie"--got his start designing websites, I believe.

Anyhow, as a book that covers the topic widely, fairly deeply, yet accessibly, it is superb. New media affect us socially, spiritually, emotionally, and biologically (in particular, our brains) and Chailles lays it out chapter and verse, quoting McLuhan as well as media studies and scripture, all without becoming a "Luddite." He is all for making use of new media, but he is also acutely aware of its pitfalls. The impression I get is that regarding this topic, Challies is a wise man.

The Dumbest Generation?

The title of a 2008 book caused a splash, given the fact that it appeared to be insulting everyone who had been born after 1998. Called The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30) the book by Emory University English professor (and National Endowment for the Arts researcher) Mark Bauerlein turns out to be not quite so provocative as it first appears. Now two-thirds of the way through, I have found the book to be not a rant but rather a carefully-argued thesis.

Bauerlein does blame the uprising generation (as the back cover puts it) of failing to take advantage of "founts of knowledge" provided by the digital age--and instead camping "in the desert, exchanging stories, pictures, tunes, and texts, savoring the thrills of peer attention." But he equally blames parents and cultural gatekeepers such as those educational experts and journalists who fall all over themselves to praise the new generation's tech savvy, thinking it's all to the good. Citing study after study, Bauelein shows, incontrovertibly it seems to me, that it is not: that the technical prowess under 30s do possess fails to help them much in the real worlds of academia and the workplace. While notable exceptions, the ones certain jouralists love to chronicle, exisit, the majority of people 18-30 in 2008 had and may still have some fabulously false notions about their capabilities.

The books on this topic, they just keep on coming, and I will continue to alert you to them.

What if you and your family were to disconnect from the digital world?

The Winter of Our Disconnect: How Three Totally Wired Teenagers (and a Mother Who Slept with Her iPhone) Pulled the Plug on Their Technology and Lived to Tell the Tale by Susan Maushart answers the above question, at least for one family.

Maushart, a spunky New Yorker and journalist, had fallen in love with an Australian and twenty-odd years later found herself living on the serene but dull western edge of the continent down under. New technology, reconnecting her to friends around the world (and to NPR and the NYT) seemed to save her sanity; but it also, she came to realize, took over the life of her family. Instead of socializing, her adolescent children spent nearly all their time in a "wired" state, communicating only in grunts and snarls. Interests and hobbies like her son's sax playing (he used to talk of becoming a musician) went by the board. The ultimate effect of social media, e-mail, electronic games, iPods, cell phones, and laptops, etc., Maushart decided, had been much more bad than good.

So, with trepidation, she launched "the Experiment." For six months, at least while at home, (they still could use computers off-site) they stopped e-mailing, texting, playing videos, watching TV, Googling, or any other activity related to the Digital Age. (They could listen to the radio or CDs and use the land line phone; Maushart admits some of the distinctions might seem arbitrary.)

In any case, while the switch was excruciating, changes to the family in the end were, to say the least, encouraging. Halfway through the Experiment, Maushart's 16-year old son Bill had this to say: "I'm not a different person but some aspects of life have definitely changed." Noting that he was playing the sax and reading more, he added that "if everything went back on right now, I wouldn't change. Like, why would I? It's more fun than playing with the computer." (To understand just how incredible this statement is coming from Bill, you need to read the book's beginning.)

Inbetween quite humorous sections about the family's struggle, are sections with a lot of thought-provoking research and expert opinion, by the way.

This book is yet another I would highly recommend to anyone grappling with "how we should now live" in our ever-changing world.

Reading, internet style

I'm two-thirds of the way through The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicolas Carr. The book contains good journalism, among other things, and Carr cites studies to prove his points and some of those studies looked into the sort of reading people do when they go online.

In short, they don't, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, they skim, with eyes following a kind of "F" pattern. They read the first line or two, drop down and read another line or two, and then zip straight to the bottom. Readers spend about 18 to 25 seconds on each page.

That being the case, it really might tempt traditional writers to ask, "Why bother writing for the internet at all?" Maybe it's better to spend their time and energy writing for the dwindling number of people who still read hard copy books. Those folks, it is hoped, will take the time for "deep reading," as Carr puts it, and as a result cause new material to wind up in their long-term memories. (By contrast, those who web surf absorb little of the content they akim.)

Anyhow, Carr makes a complex and vital, yet readable, argument, so please read his book. (But wait, you never got this far down the page, did you?)