Rapid reading and advertising skimming reflect a broader erosion of sustained attention
Evidence
The parallel with language is only too clear, and it is enough to evoke the fad for rapid reading and the habitual conscious or unconscious skimming of newspaper and advertising slogans, for us to understand the deeper social reasons for the stubborn insistence of modern poetry on the materiality and density of language, on words felt not as transparency but rather as things in themselves. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 647
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to my existing notes on information overload and the degradation of independent thought as a hostile noise. — connects to: Attention industries both react to and actively create audience fragmentation — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 617; Hyper reading alters brain structure in ways pedagogy ignores. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 422; The alertness regime dominates the mediasphere because it captures advertiser attention fastest. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 134 (+1 more)
- ADDENDUM: Could support the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ style of cultural-era analysis, though it’s tangential; more relevant to the attention/overload thread.
Related
- Falling reading attention reflects stimulus-addiction, not laziness (similarity 0.81)
- The alertness regime dominates the mediasphere because it captures advertiser attention fastest. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Attention industries both react to and actively create audience fragmentation
#qualifies(0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 617