I meant to link to this earlier. Britannica has coordinated a talk on whether The Internet (pause for silent reverence) is ruining our concentration. I’m willing to see this as a possibility. I know I scan a lot. I glance; I skim. I don’t blame the Internet for it.
Skimming, or “speed reading,” has long been a tool of people who have to get through a lot of reading. There is a skill to locating the most important points of a piece of writing, noting them, and letting the rest go by. If done intelligently, it makes otherwise impossible projects manageable.
Yes. I don’t have a good handle on that skill, but I understand it and appreciate it. But when I said that I scan/glance/skim, I don’t think I’m doing myself a favor. I should slow down a bit and avoid reading online with the idea of making everything a blog post.