As the digital age is changing our ability to read

Do not Say a Word

Canadian writer and essayist Alberto Manguel (Alberto Manguel) in his book "History of reading"Describes the remarkable transformation of human consciousness, which occurred approximately in X century AD. It was then that it was the era of reading to himself. Prior to this, people only read aloud today, we think it's savagery, but in the past it was common.

When Augustine of Hippo came to his teacher and saw Ambrose in 384, as one reads in silence, he was stunned. Silent reading was a revelation to man, says Alberto Manguel. He's writing:

The reader is finally able to unrestricted communication with the book and the words. Gone the need to spend time on the pronunciation. Now the word existed in the interior space: abandoned or barely started, fully conscious, or only half uttered, they were felt to read thoughts, checked for new values ​​and compared with other concepts.

Reading himself tantamount to liberation of the mind: you can now reflect, to remember, to inquire and to compare. Cognitive scientist Marianne Woolf (Maryanne Wolf) calls it "the gift of a secret understanding on the time." When "reading brain" is able to automatically process the characters "thinking brain" (or "I") beyond the letters, to develop themselves and the field of culture, in which he resides.

Internet will ruin us all

After thousands of years has come a new era for reading, and critical scholars seriously feared that this feature of the mind will be in danger. Internet is filled with information and social media distract us, threatening to crush internal reading ability. Journalist Nicholas Carr (Nicholas Carr) calls it a shallow, referring to the incessant throwing of one randomly read fact to another. He says that the infinite fascinating noise Network threatens our very being.

One of the greatest dangers we face - is the automation of the work of our mind and that we have given control over the mind and memories flow electronic system. It is a slow erosion of our humanity, and humanity in general.

There is no doubt that digital technology challenge our mind reader, create additional problems for him. But if we look at this issue from the point of view of history, we can say that the problem is a little different. Reading from digital media - a double-edged sword, and not unambiguous evil.

If this reading is "bad", the network will transform us into thoughtless clicks creatures endlessly scanning the eyes of our RSS feed. If this reading is high quality, it gives a great potential for expansion and development of the contemplation of space - the same one that appeared when we have learned to read without moving his lips.

The invention wheels

Skeptics like to say that the Internet has made our mind lasciviously. But it seems we were always such.

Technology Fear is not something new. In the V century BC, Socrates was concerned that an weakens human memory and destroys the ability to decision-making. Marianne Woolf believes that the opposite has happened. By reading the written man was able to learn new skills and to expand their opportunities. The visual cortex has created a network of cells that can recognize letters almost instantly.

The process became more efficient after you connect to these networks phonological and semantic areas of the cortex. With this load osvobodilic other parts of the brain that were now busy folding the read signs into sentences, stories and ideas about the world. We may not remember word for word the lines of "Iliad"But able to revive the memory of common sense and conclude that what was the old man, and what are his descendants.

Internet, perhaps, makes our mind lasciviously. But it seems that we always were: a quick look at the history of books and reading only confirms this.

Today, when we read, our eyes do not move strictly along the lines. We are, rather, we skip through the text with small jumps, make short breaks. Is it always has been?

Since the invention of papyrus in 3000-ies BC to about 300 AD, most documents were written scrolls. They had to be deployed with one hand, turning the text read. Very linear, right?

Then came the book, whose main advantage is the possibility to jump from one place to another, from chapter to chapter (chapter content appeared in the first centuries of our era). Thus, we were able to move from reading the text to interpret, and then - a sidenote and bookmarks.

In the era of printing non-linear reading found support into a kind of analogue of the Internet of the XVI century - the book wheel. His invented Italian engineer Agostino Ramelli (Agostino Ramelli) in 1588. Round table allows readers to keep a lot of open books on the same surface and switch from one text to another, simply by turning the tabletop.

Unfortunately, the book wheel was a rarity in European libraries. However, it is possible to understand that continuous reading - from the beginning to the very end of the book - not necessarily.

There is nothing new under the sun

The quality of modern media poses a problem reading the mind of a certain order. number information becomes even more complex issue. But all this is nothing new. Readers have encountered similar problems. Gutenberg printed his Bible in 1455, and more than 27 000 titles of books a total of 10 million copies were released before 1500. Feed the printed texts created the reading public and changed the how exactly people read.

German historian Rolf Engelsing (Rolf Engelsing) argues that the reading revolution took place in the late XVIII century. Up to this point the reader is a typical European owned several books: the Bible, an almanac, may It is the work of a favorite writer - and read them again and again, deep in his own stamping consciousness.

In the XVIII century, Europeans began to read all kinds of texts at one time, and then move to the next material. Due to this flow of printed texts we received during the Enlightenment, Romanticism, American and French revolutions.

Paper or screen?

Studies have shown that people who read the text on the screen, memorize and reproduce it worse than those who read the text of the paper. However, studies conducted in 2011 Rakefetom Ackerman (Rakefet Ackerman) and Goldsmith Morris (Morris Goldsmith), indicate: the problem may be that people impose on Soup too much hope that they simply can not justify.

Scientists have noticed that the paper is best suited for a thoughtful reading and learning. The screen is just perfect for viewing small text: news, messages, emails, notes. When the students were asked to read the text on the screen, they did it faster than those who read a paper. But they do not grasp the meaning and worse understood the material.

Interestingly, and if students were asked to read from the screen just as slowly, as if it was paper, the results would have changed? Jobs German teacher Johannes Naumann (Johannes Naumann) tells us about it. The scientist asked high school students to find some information on the Internet. Those who regularly use the network for training, that is expected to find it difficult texts and useful factsCoped with the task better than those who are on the Internet generally I write letters, and sat in a chat room.

Some writers are already using the power of digital media to tell their stories and share information in new ways. One of these new forms in the 90 years was named the hypertext: the text is divided into units that are interconnected links, and form a tree structure.

Technically, the Internet itself - is also a hypertext, but more often this term is used in relation to the individual works with a system of links inside.

Influence of hypertext on reading the brain, as you might expect, it gets a fair amount of attention of scientists. In 2005, psychologists Diana De Stefano (Diana DeStefano) and Jo-Anne Lefebvre (Jo-Anne Lefevre) analyzed 38 studies hypertext. Their aim was to evaluate the cognitive load, which is created by hypertext.

Scientists came to the conclusion: man is really difficult to wade through the text in the search links, evaluate each of them and choose the right one. Carr used this result as confirmation of their own ideas: the Internet makes us dumber.

In fact, the conclusions of the De Stefano and Lefebvre can not be treated as unique. In 1996, Michael Wenger (Michael Wenger) and David Payne (David Payne) conducted a study that confirms the load when reading hypertext is not much more than in the case of linear text. Both the first and second academic work suggests that hypertext is perceived and remembered better.

In addition, interaction with hypertext brings the fun and excitement - not obvious, but important conclusion.

In 2008, Tal Yarkoni (Tal Yarkoni), Nicole Speer (Nicole Speer) and Jeffrey Sachs (Jeffrey Zacks) conducted the study, during which the subjects were given two texts to read, while they themselves watched their brain activity using functional MR. One of the texts just ordinary boys described the day. In the other proposals were mixed.

Here is an example of such a story:

Mrs Birch said in a pleasant voice: "Raymond, take a bath, and then you can go to sleep." Raymond immediately noticed this and asked curiously, "Is my height - four feet?" He got up and ran slowly toward him jogging.

MRI has helped to make the following conclusions... The man has a definite idea of ​​how things are going normally. But as soon as he is confronted with the text, which offers mixed and storyline looks strange, he had to abandon the usual train of thought. Because of this, to play such a text becomes much more difficult. On the other hand, the text offers a blended looks much more interesting than usual.

Understand - this is important. But it is equally necessary to enjoy the pleasure of reading. Marianne Woolf notes: the limbic system of the brain responsible for emotions that come into play as soon as we learn read fluently and myself. It generates a feeling of pleasure, disgust, fear and anxiety, forcing again and again to come back to the story or novel. Those who create modern digital novels know about it.

The era of digital romance

No coincidence that many of the best digital texts taken the form of a game in which the reader is confronted with an imaginary world, solve puzzles and challenges, often incredibly complex.

These texts are, in fact, attack our minds, challenged him. Taking it, we get great pleasure that is hard to replace something.

The new generation of digital writers base their work on video games, in full use of their interactive capabilities. Novel PRY - a complete demonstration of how digital media can play with human consciousness. Cares.

Story of a man who returned home after the Gulf War, unfolding before us ribbon reflection on the past and the present, represented in the form of photographs, videos and audio recordings. In PRY use interface that allows you to fully immerse yourself in the story. No wonder that, when you read PRY (or play in it), your brain is not very much and ready for this experience. You are invited to experience the immediacy of what is happening, to interact with the written, use your body to not only turn the page, but also to continue development of the plot. At first you will feel the excitement: suddenly do something wrong? suddenly miss something? Later, however, you feel how the brain adapts to the new, albeit unusual text.

Of course, the Internet - it is not PRY novel. But reading history shows that what we are experiencing now, perhaps not final scenario. It's more like an intermediate state, the compressed spring.

The faster and we are inattentive read, The more likely that we will become thoughtlessly clicks and jump from the text on the text of the people. Maybe we should try to dive into the text? Grasp the meaning of a proposal is so nice.

We live in the era of digital culture. We must be vigilant, discerning, savvy. But it is important not to lose the ability to wonder, to admire and enjoy. We need to love ourselves. Then, the digital reading will help to expand the already vast world of the person.