This Just In: Reading the Whole Thing Actually Helps

overloadWe’re developing into an intellectually lazy and selfish culture thanks to search, 140 characters, and RSS. But are the tools really to blame? Nope. Perhaps the tools are just a manifestation of a culture suffering from T.A.D.D. (technological attention deficit disorder), or perhaps we’re just misusing them. I suppose that’s somewhat of a moot point now; however, how we choose to behave and use the tools (vs. being used by the tools) can still be healthy.

You might be suffer from T.A.D.D. if…

  • You only read the titles of blog posts
  • You only read the first and last sentence of each paragraph
  • You’re incapable of reading anything longer than one page
  • You read a research document and you mentally snapshot the graphs, and proceed to use those stats in your next conversation
  • You delicious dozens of articles/posts daily, and never review them
  • You quote Tweets as facts without checking the associated links
  • You find others frequently asking you, “Did you have a chance to read the whole email?”
  • You regularly read subject headings of emails, and “forget” to read the rest
  • You delete voicemails before listening to them (although…voicemails really are the worst thing on earth)

What are the consequences of T.A.D.D.?

  • You misquote things regularly – even though you have no idea you’re doing so
  • You rarely get the full picture (on much of anything)
  • You overwhelm and immobilize yourself under a mound of data snippets
  • You never let your brain fully process an idea
  • You kill meetings because you didn’t read the whole email, and start a debate about something that was already addressed
  • If the author is a client, friend, or coworker you inadvertently tell the author their time isn’t as valuable as yours
  • Books hurt your brain, eventually shaping you into one, shallow, person
  • You can’t truly tackle, understand, and help bring change to complex problems
  • Your ideas will be about as long-term oriented as your information consumption habits
  • You become impatient far too easily — mostly with other people

Clean up your blog reader (hopefully I make the cut!), unfollow some people, read a book, read the whole email, pick up a reputable magazine, and stretch your brain, show some discipline, show others you care by not asking questions that were already addressed, and truly learn about a small handful of meaningful topics vs. frantically learning a little about a lot.

If you’re wondering how the internet really is affecting culture, check out the Pew Internet & American Life Project.