Nowadays, reading has become more accessible than ever. My mother told me that in her childhood, to do her homework or just read a book, she had to go to the library or carry stacks of books home with a reader’s ticket. All we need to do is open our phone and there are thousands of books, articles, and audiobooks in front of us. Online libraries have made literature accessible to everyone: the electronic version of the book is cheaper, and much can be found for free. It would seem that I don’t want to read it. But the paradox is that the easier it became for us to read, the more difficult it became to really read.
Most people today read a book, but they don’t keep its meaning. I’ve noticed this in myself: I used to read 10-15 books during the summer holidays and still remember them. Now the amount of reading has not decreased, but I quickly began to forget what the book was about. Sometimes I come back to a title and I can’t remember reading it at all.
I think it’s not just about the format. The digital environment of social networks, instant messengers, and an endless news feed have accustomed us to speed: scrolling, switching and scanning text instead of diving into it. We started reading books the same way we scroll through Instagram. Quickly and superficially.
Online reading fits perfectly into this model. You can read a couple of pages, get distracted by a notification, reply to a message and then return to the text. Unlike a paper book, which creates a sense of a separate space, digital text always exists alongside distractions. And these constant switching takes up more energy than if we just put down the phone and focus.
The ability to concentrate is gradually changing. The brain adapts to short attention spans, long paragraphs begin to seem complicated, slow thought development becomes boring. Even an interesting book requires effort that we are no longer used to. In this sense, choosing an online format is not a reason, but a symptom. We choose it because it fits our new way of thinking: fragmented, intermittent, dependent on constant stimulation.
This does not mean that online reading is evil. It has opened up access to literature for millions of people, and this is important. But we should honestly admit its side effect: we lose the skill of deep concentration, which previously seemed self-evident. So now, I’m trying to pick up a paper book more often now, and I notice the difference.
