I’m deeply familiar with this problem. When I was younger, I was a voracious reader. I would read books the way magicians vanish cards. And I still remember all those books. It was just habit, I’m probably one of a small number of people to have read the Baldur’s Gate manual cover to cover.
The Internet trained me to “skim by default.” As did college, tutorials, legislation, and academic papers. I got so used to “surfing” (the metaphor is apt, when faced with the oceans of information the internet offers) that I stopped noticing that I was TL;DRing novels and books.
The issue, to me, is one of habit. When people talk about “distraction-free” environments and spend lots of money on products to “disconnect,” they’re treating the problem the way that smokers try to stop smoking. Which is all well and good if you weren’t required by work and modern life to smoke daily. The harder task is to develop new habits around these things.
And this is a perfect opportunity for a shameless plug for my Anti-Tsundoku Book Club.
