What’s the Web doing to reading? Hurting my eyes, that’s what.

Seriously, the Web is making our in depth story time seem more like a scanning sort-of-get-what-the-author-is-saying time. So what do I have to say about that?

Firstly, scanning news stories, blogs, anything for that matter, on the Web is not nearly as fun as actually having the physical piece of paper in my hands. Also, when reading print, like the newspaper, I don’t feel rushed. There’s something about the presence of the Web that makes me feel like I have way too much information in front of me for me to casually read an article.

Secondly, and I’m being completely serious, the computer hurts my eyes. And I’m not the only one. Many people suffer from this discomfort and although not serious, it is annoying and it really hurts! According to CNN’s Health/Library, I experience all of the symptoms for eyestrain and there are ways of fixing it, but who wants to go through all of that trouble just to read? Now I’ve tried reading books on the Internet, but after three pages I had to quit. I like the old-fashioned paper that doesn’t illuminate an artificial light back in my face when I read it.

Third, and lastly, I agree with Nicholas Carr. He said that the Web is not only changing the way we read, it’s flat out changing our brains. Carr talks about how it’s changing many regions of the brain, including those that govern such essential cognitive functions as memory and the interpretation of visual and auditory stimuli. That’s intense.

Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate technology, but the Web is changing the way people read.

For now, I think people aren’t realizing it as much, but for someone like me, it’s evident every time I read online. In fact, my eyes are hurting just thinking about it.

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