That's why we need books, and why I believe they will survive. Because most humans have a desire to engage in deep thought and deep concentration. Those muscles are necessary for deep feeling and deep engagement. Most humans don't just want mental snacks forever; they also want meals.I really wish I could agree. I'd like to live in a world where this was true. But I think he's completely wrong about this. Has there ever been a culture in which most of its constituents read long, difficult books for fun? Most people in the first world don't read for pleasure at all, and most of the books that do get sold are easy-to-read, page-turner airplane/beach novels, the print analog of thriller movies, the exact opposite of mental "meals" that require "deep thought and deep concentration."
I'm not against e-books in principle – I'm tempted by the Kindle – but the more they become interactive and linked, the more they multitask and offer a hundred different functions, the less they will be able to preserve the aspects of the book that we actually need. An e-book reader that does a lot will not, in the end, be a book. The object needs to remain dull so the words – offering you the most electric sensation of all: insight into another person's internal life – can sing.The objection is to "the e-book reader that does a lot." The idea is that, if the reading platform has Internet access and tons of convenient features, it will be a distraction engine just like the PC. Rather, as we cope with ever denser and faster streams of electronic noise, we will have to plan and work to carve out islands of slow time. This can be accomplished with old-style books, but also with dumb e-readers where Internet distractions don't beckon (I like the adjective "autistic" for this), and computer programs like "Freedom." Far from predicting doom and decline, the author optimistically predicts that we will come to solve the distraction problem by intentionally carving out slow time.
So how do we preserve the mental space for the book? We are the first generation to ever use the internet, and when I look at how we are reacting to it, I keep thinking of the Inuit communities I met in the Arctic, who were given alcohol and sugar for the first time a generation ago, and guzzled them so rapidly they were now sunk in obesity and alcoholism. Sugar, alcohol and the web are all amazing pleasures and joys – but we need to know how to handle them without letting them addle us.
The idea of keeping yourself on a digital diet will, I suspect, become mainstream soon. Just as I've learned not to stock my fridge with tempting carbs, I've learned to limit my exposure to the web – and to love it in the limited window I allow myself. I have installed the programme "Freedom" on my laptop: it will disconnect you from the web for however long you tell it to. It's the Ritalin I need for my web-induced ADHD. I make sure I activate it so I can dive into the more permanent world of the printed page for at least two hours a day, or I find myself with a sense of endless online connection that leaves you oddly disconnected from yourself.
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posted by Fizz at 5:43 AM on June 27, 2011 [7 favorites]