Author Topic: 'Skim reading is the new normal'  (Read 1623 times)

Nearly Sane

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'Skim reading is the new normal'
« on: August 25, 2018, 09:52:47 PM »

torridon

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Re: 'Skim reading is the new normal'
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2018, 08:21:18 AM »
How can we not skim read ?  There's so much information out there, if we read everything in depth we'd be dead within a month.  Human brains evolved in simpler times.

Steve H

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Re: 'Skim reading is the new normal'
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2018, 08:40:09 AM »
How can we not skim read ?  There's so much information out there, if we read everything in depth we'd be dead within a month.  Human brains evolved in simpler times.
You don't have to read everything; just read properly what you do read.
I came to realise that every time we recognise something human in creatures, we are also recognising something creaturely in ourselves. That is central to the rejection of human supremacism as the pernicious doctrine it is.
Robert Macfarlane

torridon

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Re: 'Skim reading is the new normal'
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2018, 08:42:29 AM »
You don't have to read everything; just read properly what you do read.

But then how do you choose what is worth reading, without skim reading, or similar ?

Steve H

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Re: 'Skim reading is the new normal'
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2018, 08:53:05 AM »
Author you're a fan of, subject you're interested in, the blurb...
I came to realise that every time we recognise something human in creatures, we are also recognising something creaturely in ourselves. That is central to the rejection of human supremacism as the pernicious doctrine it is.
Robert Macfarlane

ippy

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Re: 'Skim reading is the new normal'
« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2018, 09:47:37 AM »
But then how do you choose what is worth reading, without skim reading, or similar ?

I'll go with you on this one, I listen to jabber radio for most of the time and I sort of skim listen, there's loads I'm not hearing then I pick up on a word or two and then I'm all ears and listening closely, skim listening.

Regards ippy

torridon

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Re: 'Skim reading is the new normal'
« Reply #6 on: August 29, 2018, 08:22:10 PM »
Author you're a fan of, subject you're interested in, the blurb...

Then we are at risk of merely strengthening our private echo chamber.

Sometimes I think we were happier with less information. With fewer choices to make. Maybe Alan's freedom is really a burden.

Steve H

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Re: 'Skim reading is the new normal'
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2018, 12:53:11 PM »
Then we are at risk of merely strengthening our private echo chamber.

Sometimes I think we were happier with less information. With fewer choices to make. Maybe Alan's freedom is really a burden.
Not necessarily. I have read books precisely because I strongly disagreed with them before now, to find out more about the arguments (and I tried to be open-minded and prepared to change, or at least modify, my own views in the light of them).
I came to realise that every time we recognise something human in creatures, we are also recognising something creaturely in ourselves. That is central to the rejection of human supremacism as the pernicious doctrine it is.
Robert Macfarlane