I just read a fascinating article in The Atlantic:
The article highlights a troubling trend observed by professors at elite colleges: students are increasingly unable to read entire books. The professor in this article states that over the past decade, his students have become overwhelmed by reading assignments that were once considered standard. He also says that many students now arrive at college without having read a complete book during their high school years, having been assigned only excerpts, articles, and short texts. O_o Seriously???
As someone who LOVES, LOVES LOVES to read & grew up reading all sorts of books, this just blows my mind.
The article explores several potential reasons for this decline- but one really stood out:
Technology and Attention Spans: The constant use of smartphones and social media has altered students’ expectations of engagement, making sustained reading seem unnatural compared to the instant gratification of digital content.
Basically, the ease of access to quick, entertaining content reduces students’ ability to concentrate on demanding texts, leading to difficulties in comprehension and retention. Being constantly connected creates an environment where distraction is the norm, and sustained attention is challenging to maintain.
Is it possible to leverage technology in a way that supports deep reading and learning, rather than detracting from it? I’m not sure. I personally don’t like eReaders like Kindle- I need a physicals book.
Have you personally noticed a change in your reading habits due to technology?
What do you guys think about all of this?
Bookworms of the world unite! I can relate to this. My bestest buddy and I were well known to be bookworms in high school!
The gift of focussed attention is one that seems to have been bestowed upon some, not others, hey?
I tend to speed read electronic sources of information, physical books I take my time with. I have recently started reading out loud to my little cat to eliminate any stuttering and slurring relating to my speech. For me, the trick is to slow down in order to get the words out clearly. It is working in a very practical way which is fantastic.
I love the physicality and experience of reading a book. Thumbing through the pages, flicking them at speed to smell the book and everything it’s been through (I love second hand books). I recently read a book someone had been doodling in - obviously a life form artist. It added something to the book, knowing it had been used to kindle someone’s creative outlet.
Vintage books are amazing too, the language and the sentence structure is more familiar to me than modern languaging.
On the other hand, I love the electronic quick search ability of ebooks - searching for a word or phrase and finding it almost instantly, really great for reference material…
I wonder if the Kompakt will have basic keyword search function in it’s e-reader? And what sort of file types it will support? Mmmm, eagerly awaiting next release of info… 
Until then, please excuse me while I read a book or two… 
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I work in Higher education since 2011. Students find tasks like reading 20 pages hard, often take pictures and videos instead of reading and can comprehend maximal information of about 1 screen at the time. That is mostly for young people, since students are also rarer middle aged people that want career advance.
Younger generation admits its digital era consequence where stimuli is short and quick, even saying they have troubles looking at video format longer then 30 sec
At that is in social sciences and health care professionalism, where back in Pre Bologna time, reading 200 to 1000 pages (and often memorizing) per subject was de facto standard.
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