Stupid

Is the internet making me stupid?



I am starting to get a bit concerned over the shift in my reading material of choice. In the past, I took great pleasure in a good thought-provoking book. Fiction or non-fiction, books were my go-to source of intellectual stimulation, relaxation, and pleasure. They still are, to a certain extent, but I am afraid that my free time is increasingly being filled by a computer screen filled with blurbs of information rather than a text filled with conjoined thoughts and themes.



My mind craves blogs. It craves People.com, marthastewart.com, foodtv.com. It craves little bits of easy-to-digest information. And I am starting to see the effects.



This morning, I picked up a new book that I am reviewing for a journal. As I began to hack through the prologue, I found myself reading and rereading sentences. Paragraphs. Pages.



"Dang...this book is hard."



In the words of Scooby Doo: "Ruh-roh"



Bad sign.



Granted, many of the things I read on the internet--particularly blogs--are thought-provoking and challenging. They leave me thinking. But I think I need to resharpen my intellectual tools a bit. Rebuild my stamina for reading material that goes beyond a few clicks or scrolls. Stop my brain from regressing to a state of comprehension limited to headlines and pictures.



What do you think? Has the proliferation of the Internet affected the way you think or receive information?