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1. Brett
   June 10th, 2008 at 5:00 am

   tl;dr

2. jmp478
   June 10th, 2008 at 5:43 am

   Break.com -
   The Idiocracy of the internet.

3. Angstrom
   June 10th, 2008 at 6:26 am

   Perhaps simply witnessing the stupidity of others on the web has given us the evolutionary signal that we can try less hard.
   Reading too many youtube video comments has signaled to our hindbrains that we are wastefully over-competitive compared to the idiot hordes.

4. Sue Dunham
   June 10th, 2008 at 6:41 am

   Me too. I used to read 2 or 3 books per week; now it takes 2 or 3 weeks to read 1 book.

5. gtron
   June 10th, 2008 at 7:45 am

   this pnemoena has got to be real - in the same period of time that the internet blew up, TV has gotten way stupider, and so has pop music, and so have advertisements… and I find the newscasters and radio people are dumbing down. I thought it was me getting older, but I’m not sure.
   And if you are looking for work, the internet/email approach is useless - people scan your data, never even see your face and don’t even bother to let you know your application was received… and then you find lesser skilled/talented people in jobs you were after… it is true, the humans are getting stupider, and seem more content with it. Wanna go and buy some more gas at inflated prices in a completely false pricing scheme that does not match the actual supply potential? Everyone else is!

6. luvpumpkns
   June 10th, 2008 at 8:22 am

   i’m not having this problem. i’ve never been able to read long articles on the internet, because i don’t like staring at the screen that long, or with that much focus. regular books though…i read them at the same rate i always have, one every week or so. i much prefer a real book to the internet, so i can’t imagine not being able to read a book.

   the only thing i’ve noticed in this vein is that it’s hard for me to sit down and watch whole movies in one sitting. i just don’t have the attention span, so i watch them in bits and pieces. so i can see that the internet certainly affects that in a person, but that shouldn’t translate over to books because you can put them down whenever you want.

7. Tanuki
   June 10th, 2008 at 8:32 am

   I’m not having this problem, I think that’s because of the difference between reading a book and the internet. When you are with a book, you are focused on it but with the internet, you have billions other articles to read if the one you’re reading now doesn’t hold your attention immediately.

8. Justin
   June 10th, 2008 at 9:13 am

   I don’t know if it’s the internet or what, but I definitely have become less able to concentrate and absorb long books. Unless of course I douse myself with caffeine.

   I wouldn’t be surprised if this is true in some respect.

9. Lucky
   June 10th, 2008 at 9:55 am

   I was just thinking about this last night! I was trying to crack open “Neuromancer” but I couldn’t concentrate! I think its all the scanning I do on Google Reader that’s turning my attention span to mush.

10. Owen
    June 10th, 2008 at 10:10 am

    I was going to say ‘it hasn’t affected me, but I wasn’t even able to read more than 1/3 of the excerpt posted here.

11. Andrew G
    June 10th, 2008 at 10:14 am

    Not a problem for me at all. I used to read a lot years ago, then not as much as I spent more time on the internet, but I recently started reading a lot again and I have no problem getting through a book.

12. Chica
    June 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am

    This news makes me so happy! I had assumed my reading problems were because of middle age, now maybe I can blame it on my internet reading…since I’ve got in the habit of scrolling through articles for the main point, I find I do that in books, too, which doesn’t work…

13. BBQchicken
    June 10th, 2008 at 10:36 am

    Very good article. I struggled through it having to drag myself away from the temptation of clicking off to other websites half-way through.

    I do find my concentration is very easily broken, both with books and other things in general. Im thinking the way ive been using the internet for the last few years may well have contributed to this and has definitely given me cause to think (all be it in short unconnected bursts) about changing a few things.

14. neko
    June 10th, 2008 at 10:51 am

    oh, god. i think i have this too. and even though i’ve been using the internet, as well as reading voraciously since i was 9 or so, this concentration thing is a recent change. i now rarely read outside my bus rides to class, even then i apparently get bored or something, since i find myself staring out the window, ignoring the open book and unable to continue.

    tl;dr: i blame web2.0.

15. cooties
    June 10th, 2008 at 11:32 am

    i thought something was up when i noticed lists of names - like our internal phone list - being alphabetized by first name

16. Lo
    June 10th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    …I read novel length fanfiction online. In fact, I’ve read a few novels themselves online. I go through webcomic archives when I first come across them and read for hours, sometimes days, to catch up on the years I never heard of the comic. So I wouldn’t say the internet has affected my ability to focus at all.

17. Ali S.
    June 10th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

    I can’t say really. I think I still maintain most of my brain power, however, when I do venture to the “i can has cheezburger” site and read the comments that fans wrote I start having severe headaches just after a few minutes. LOLspeak and such drive me insane at times too.

18. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    June 10th, 2008 at 1:43 pm

    I’ve never liked reading long articles online, anyway. It’s not a concentration issue. It’s an eyestrain issue.

    I think the Internet is making people stupider, though, in that it appears to make poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation acceptable.

19. Lynn
    June 10th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    I think it’s just impatience to get to the next thing online. There’s so much stuff we know we’ll never get to it all but we still try.

    I feel this impatience myself but I can and do read long articles and even whole books online. It just takes a little self-discipline.

20. Jimbo
    June 10th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    Is it just me or is that woman in the picture really hot?

    Maybe I just like dumb chicks?

21. kid_icarus
    June 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

    i think it started way before the internet. attention spans declined dramatically with the advent of mtv. and i’m not sure the internet is making us less intelligent. we now have access to more information much faster than we ever have been able to before. as for reading. i still read on the bus to and from work, and will look up and stare out the window now and again. not because the book is bad, but between staring at a computer screen all day, tv/movie/whatever screen at night i just find it nice to watch the world for a wee bit even if it is through a bus window.

    although, i agree with neatoramawontsendmeapassword too on the grammar, etc. however, i also believe that was in decline before the internet became big as well…..and texting has not helped……ah, well such is life.

22. DOJ
    June 10th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    or maybe people are now realizing that all those books the read as a “lit major” are boring and dumb. And they only read them because it takes too much effort to go get a better book off the shelf. The internet only reduced the effort in getting something worth reading.

23. rdubs
    June 10th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    This world. FUCKED.
    Read fahrenheit 451.

24. Loverat
    June 10th, 2008 at 6:34 pm

    I think its more likely attributable to advanced medical sciences allowing people to breed when they shouldn’t and live when they wouldn’t That and the fact that our processes of natural selection (eg: the stupid will fall down the big hole the smart will walk around) no longer apply = gene pool getting diluted by the moron gene!

25. Tempscire
    June 10th, 2008 at 7:16 pm

    What if I forget about the web page I was looking at in favor of getting lost in a book for a while? Does that count? Either way, I have a rather long attention span.

    Re: people getting more stupid– probably not. Now we just have a huge forum in which the idiots of the world may prominently display their idiocy to all the other idiots of the world.

26. CheeseDuck
    June 10th, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    Uhm. I didn’t read the article. Or the little excerpt.

27. erin
    June 10th, 2008 at 9:33 pm

    I have found the same thing, in that my learning style / ability to process inoformation has changed, but as I work in academia and reading and writing is my livelihood I’m finding it very problematic!

28. Lemons
    June 10th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

    @Lo: Same here, although now I add some original fic to that. I also have noted that my obsessive following of some academic blogs has certainly expanded my knowledge, and does nothing to lessen my attention span. It’s not the intarwebs’ fault that people are purposefully choosing short, snappy content to peruse– that’s simply the sort of thing very widespread now.

29. gentianstar
    June 10th, 2008 at 11:50 pm

    If you use the image of a sexy woman to illustrate “dumb,” then, yes, the Internet is making you stupid.

30. That Freakin Dragon!
    June 10th, 2008 at 11:54 pm

    I personally have noticed myself gaining intelligence, rather than losing it. See? 4 big words, in 1 sentence.

    I’ve gained more vocabulary, and grammar skills.

31. thisfieldispointless
    June 11th, 2008 at 12:32 am

    Hmm, Dragon… If you believe those were big words you might want to rethink this article a tad.

32. Rosi
    June 11th, 2008 at 2:35 am

    I think people aren’t getting more stupid because of the Internet… almost everyone (adults) I know say they used to read more when they were younger, regardless of whether they use the Internet. I think it’s just a thing that happens as you get older: you have more to worry about, more things to do, so having a book hold your attention for the same length of time requires more of an effort to step away from your normal life. I’m not saying *all* adults have issues when reading, but I’m saying that it’s harder to fit reading into the packed life of your average adult than into the life of a college student or teenager. So many people have said to me that they don’t have time to read anymore…
    And I dislike reading long articles on the Internet. But not because they’re long, but because I dislike reading on a screen, plus I have a widescreen monitor so the text comes up a lot smaller…

33. MoonCake
    June 11th, 2008 at 6:59 am

    i commend the internet for having so much reading material. if it weren’t for the intertron, i wouldn’t read nearly as much as i do. i’ve always hated reading books because they’ve always been boring to me, but i’ve actually picked up more books in the last year or two because i’m eager to absorb more material. i could also give credit to my boyfriend because he has a good collection of books and he’s a reader of sorts… i’ve also gotten more into politics and worldly affairs, and nothing really compares to the novelty of a good book.

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