The Great Wall of Text..

[PicassoCT]

Remember those Complains about ARGHS or others long Posts? Wall of Textcomplains anyone? Well, here is a interesting Article about a Problem, you maybee not even knew you head.. you don´t want to read anymore Walls of Text, - you simply can´t ...

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

The Inernetz disabled my Bookreadingability.. i will lawsuit ICAN

[smoth]

no I didn't read the article, it has little to do with wall of text posts. I read the entire oreilly php book on my flight to Italy. The reason wall of text posts are unreadable is not that we cannot read them it is that we do not want to spend the time.

If the thoughts are spanning several pages they are probably unorganized. Most of the time when people post walls of text they have not organized their thoughts. It does not take a lot of effort to make a simple organized statement. The problem is that people write long incohesive rants then expect to devote our time to an improperly structured article.

If people stopped, took a step back and looked at the content rather then verbally barfing they would realize that they are wasting our time. Saktoth's recent thread in mods is a great example of this.

[KDR_11k]

I can read a book just fine, if you have trouble reading a book for long get a better book.

[Panda]

I'm reading a couple of very good books right now too along with reading stuff on the internet to find pictures and diagrams for reinforcement.

[PicassoCT]

You can´t cut everything in a complex world down to a three sentence statement. And not everyone is a splendid writer, so having a boring, long rant is not nessesary a bad thing, as long as it contains vital information. Some sience Books are written by Great Thinkers with nearly nil writting skill, they are painfull to read, but - that´s were the Article returns, you could force yourself through, for the diamond sentences hidden on Page 442..

And the Article is about the Problem that your brain still maybee would take it as a waste of time, even if the WallofText Rand (or lets calll i Book on the Aproach) was a well crafted, organised masterpiece..

I for myself found the Article quite true, after 5 years Inet i started reading mutlible Books at the same time, stopping here, starting there- having trouble bringing the boring ones to an end.

[Machiosabre]

I just hate reading a lot of text on a screen, I was spending a lot of time online before I started spending a lot of time reading :-

[Panda]

You can´t cut everything in a complex world down to a three sentence statement. And not everyone is a splendid writer, so having a boring, long rant is not nessesary a bad thing, as long as it contains vital information.

If you have absolutely no other option, want to find the information in the rant, and the person who wrote the work is dead and can't make it better, a long, boring rant is not a bad thing. Usually, this isn't the situation on the internet, even if it can be difficult to post something succinct about a complex subject.

Some sience Books are written by Great Thinkers with nearly nil writting skill, they are painfull to read, but - that´s were the Article returns, you could force yourself through, for the diamond sentences hidden on Page 442..

If the rant is that bad or you are short on time, it is very difficult to force yourself through it or get anything out of it.

And the Article is about the Problem that your brain still maybee would take it as a waste of time, even if the WallofText Rand (or lets calll i Book on the Aproach) was a well crafted, organised masterpiece..

Maybe your brain would still take it as a waste of time, but you want to get the most out of what you're reading. If the book or whatever you're reading is boring you so much that you can't get much of anything out of it, I'd try to find something else.

I for myself found the Article quite true, after 5 years Inet i started reading mutlible Books at the same time, stopping here, starting there- having trouble bringing the boring ones to an end.

I don't know if the internet would have an affect on my ability to read boring books other than to provide me with more options of what to read. Mostly, I wouldn't read something that I really considered to be boring in the first place, but I think I may interested in a lot of topics that many people consider to be somewhat boring.

[Gota]

I(m reading both "The prince" by niccolo makiavelli lol at spelling,and faust by Gete.
Its a win combination...both books appeal to totaly different aspects in a person.im making the comparison between the princes content and fausts presentation.

[malric]

Mostly I agree with Panda.

The problem with the internet is that, I wold say, 90% is rubbish. Great books are great books. If I start one I can't stop reading it.

And a forum is not a book. In a discussion I rarely say more than a couple of sentences before waiting for a reaction.

I think I read once one of the long post of Argh. It wasn't that interesting, so next time I will skip.

[Gota]

as the writer of the article wrote himself...he is scourning a dying tredition perhaps,but the internet is a way to reach a need of humanity that is expected as our society grows to even larger numbers thus if the internets system will prevail its victory is a proof of itaself that it is better than the older system for the continuation of the development of more complex relations between ever growing groups of people.
the changes in an avarage individuals life through history are just changes not for better or worse in some complete way since good and badare relative and can be defined in many ways even when it comes to quality of life.
I suppose that some things have imporved from one solid point of view which is the biological.
Humans are programmed to clinge to life,like many other living things and thus living longer from a biological point of view is better for an individual cause he is built to try and live as much as possible.
Changes like the internet or other media types are just changes nothing more they dont hold some positive or negetive meaning for the individual(not them or the changes they bring along) and are only important if you look at them from the point of view of the entire human race as it grows.

[PicassoCT]

It isn´t easy to describe, but imagine you have to go through something boring (sometimes the interest returns halfway of the book, or later...) but the Attention and Constant Concentration - it is flickering, not weaker, but the whole time searching for interesting stuff,if i could, i would Alt+Tab nearly all those boring books, to look for better ones... I remember a Time were that wasn´t the Case, i could go right through till the last page went away under through my fingers...

And i am not against the Internet, hell i post in it.. (against it ) but i would prefer to have my longterm readAbility without Tabswitchneed after twenty years with the Net..

[Gota]

prejudice and a post factum sentiments of a mind realizing change from the familiar,and even that is inside a superficial frame cause without reading that article you might not even have noticed the change or noticed it but would not have imagined it is cause of the change in the way we recieve knowledge as the article claims.

[aegis]

I only read about half of the article <_<

[PicassoCT]

What´s so horrible wrong on a little Selfreflection Gota? And Memorycutlure always has changed- remember Dantes Inferno, the first Book writting down a "House of Memory" People used in medieval Times to Remember important Things (Every Important/Thought a Virtual Mindplace to visit it walking by after beeing lost in the Forrest of the Unknown)

So why shouldn´t the Internet change the way we think? Try to talk to your parents, or grandparents over things in the Inet- and you notice that Change in thought...

And again, i am not against it, just a little sad over losses, still not completely aware of the Win that might be included.
PS: Ever heard of CERN (a great Physicsproject in Genf) the scientist there have no leader, just spokes(wo)man, are from a hundred diffrent countrys, organizing themselfs without statehelp or Economypartners (allthough they take Money from States).. maybee that are the first fruits growing on the Inet-Culture Tree, doing things `Manhattan-Project´scale, simply by playing in the same Sandbox.

[manored]

People DO NOT WANT to read long boring stuff. We did it before the internet because we had no option, what naturally made us good on it... but now that we dont need it anymore, off course we wont be as good at it as we used to be :)

[SwiftSpear]

I read the whole thing... and not surprisingly I think it was BS.

Although, I tend to be very very suspicious of people warning of things that magically change the way you think... because I'm a firm believer that you personally have MUCH MUCH MUCH more control over the way you think then any external influence short of outright chemical manipulation.

[Dragon45]

whats this thread about

i didnt read it too long

[manored]

I read the whole thing... and not surprisingly I think it was BS.

Although, I tend to be very very suspicious of people warning of things that magically change the way you think... because I'm a firm believer that you personally have MUCH MUCH MUCH more control over the way you think then any external influence short of outright chemical manipulation.

YA. Magical changes in our toughs only happen if we want, and I dont know anyone who prefers to read 10 boring pages for 1 page of goodstuff instead of 1 page of goodstuff :)

[Forboding Angel]

Very interesting article. Whether you agree with it or not, there are many "food for thought" moments in it.

I'm probably one of very few people who still appreciate old material for what it is. For example, I love early 1900's science fiction, I still listen periodically to 40-60's old time radio broadcasts, and love the Tom Swift series by the generations of "Victor Appleton" pennames. I even have one copywritten in 1916, original binding and everything.

While the internet has changed the way that i do things, it has not changed the person that is me, and I believe that that is the most important part.

[manored]

Ever heard "The same man never crosses the same river twice"? :) Internet do changes us, but it doesnt means it changes for bad... one funny fact about humans is that we always suppose a change is bad until we see that it is not :) Personally I think that jumping straigh for what matters is a good thing if you know what you need to learn.