Today, on Infocalypse, Eric Rice poses the question, “Does Skimming Content Make Us Stupid?” Do the tools that facilitate us being more efficient when consuming different types of media, actually dumb us down in the process? Check out his post — it is a solid opener for a much broader conversation.
In addition, does the ability to consume massive amounts of media (quickly) provide an actual benefit? What are the pluses in that scenario? Does the speed at which we can process all forms of media leave time to critically assess the messages within the media? Should not media literacy outweigh the benefits of massive media consumption?
Some great thoughts in Eric Rice’s post, thanks for pointing me in that direction. I’ve noticed that I used to be a voracious media skimmer, but in the past I’ve begun to rely on curated content so that I can track fewer, but higher quality, stuff on the web.
I heard a program on NPR last night that relates to this question… It shows that as we age, our brains are less effective at multi-tasking (among other things). Slower brain functioning, which begins during middle age, means that it is a challenge to switch from task to task. You remember less of what you see/hear/read while multi-tasking as the episodic memory begins to require more time to “set” something in your brain. So, maybe skimming is only for the young brains?