It wasn't my intention to do this experiment, it was accidental, as the title says, it just happened, but I'm glad I paid attention to it as it can serve me in the future, to get better.
In the recent months, unfortunately I had to spend some hours in different waiting rooms. When I say hours, I mean at least two hours each time, sometimes even longer, waiting for someone to complete therapy. These occasions were planned, so I went prepared each time and tried to use the time wisely.
The obvious and handy solution for many is to spend the time on your phone, but honestly, I didn't want that. I can do that anywhere, anytime, but it rarely happens to have two hours that I can spend reading. Why? There's a good reason for that too and unfortunately, the screen always beats reading.
Most likely you'd say reading in a waiting room shared with at least 10 people has its challenges and I totally agree with you. Even if no one is speaking, which is excluded, there, the (repetitive AI) music playing, people move around and make different noises, so it's definitely challenging.
For me it was an exercise on how to exclude, shut out the noise.
The first few times there was a smaller waiting room with like 10, 12 people constantly rotating. Some came, others got called in and many were chatting with the person they came with, or to the one next to them. There was the repetitive AI music playing as well, so you can say that the noise was quite an amalgam of sounds.
On the first day I thought it'll be impossible to focus in these conditions, especially that the book I brought with me was a technical book, not a novel or something light, but I was wrong. Surprisingly, I was able to focus and read a good part of the book, which is quite an achievement, no matter how you look at it.
This week we had an appointment in a brand new clinic, where conditions are up to 2026's standards. The waiting room was quite big, with comfortable armchairs and tables, and people were less than you'd expect. When I saw it, I said this is a lucky break, I can spend the upcoming 2, 3 hours reading calmly, which I did, but the focus was not the same. This may look surprising and I was surprised too.
What happened? At the second location, there were only 2 people besides me. There was no music, the only noise beside the human made one was provided by the ventilation system. The monotone noise by the ventilation system I was able to ignore, but the different noise the other two people made, individually, that was interrupting. It seems like multiple noise sources and bigger volume is easier to ignore, or at least easier for me.
If you ask a specialist, most likely there's an explanation for why this happened. Worst case scenario they would say I'm retarded and can't focus, but finding and explanation, whatever it would be, won't help me in any way, so next time I need to do better and try to focus more.
While writing this post was thinking how our behavior and abilities change. So many people can't focus for more than 5 minutes and get bored, lose focus when they need to read 500, 1000 words articles. Now with AI and audio options, they don't even need to, but where does this lead? How are they going to sharpen their skills? They would most likely argue that there's no need to read anymore as AI does the job for you, but what are you without AI?
A couple of decades ago, short form content was not really available as newspaper and magazine articles were longer that social media posts are today. Micro blogging, or short content social media platforms appeared around 1997, but got popular mostly around 2005 - 2006, with Twitter and Facebook. Today people are used to read the headlines on X, and if there's an article linked to it, they ask Grok to summarize it as TL;DR. These options can come in handy as time is always limited, but does it help get better in focusing, when reading longer texts? I highly doubt it.
Many people don't even read today, they prefer to listen to audiobooks. When you read, you go at your own pace and the pace is dictated by your capability of comprehending what you read. When someone reads to you, you can either keep up with the reader, or you miss a good part due to losing focus.
Technology is great, we're getting new tools every day that can make our lives easier in a way, but can make us dumber as well.
There were times when cashiers had to calculate the amount of change to give back to the buyer, as there were no apps to do it for them. They had a sharp mind, they were good at math. Look at them now. Take away the cash register and they can't count back the change to you anymore.
So many kids can't read the analog clock as everything is digital. Most likely handwriting is going to be considered special art soon as most people prefer to take digital notes and the less you write, the worse your handwriting gets.
I think it comes down to individual preference. You can choose to be 100% dependent on technology, or you can use it, but still keep your skills sharp as you never know.
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back in the mysts of time I was a manager for a UK supermarket chain "kwik save", the original stack em high sell em cheap kind of place. sort term/long term memory, your post reminded me.
Ok so the chain stocked the same things across all its stores all at the same price, there were about 1000 different items. Nothing was price marked, no bar or Q codes. The checkout girls were trained to memorise each and every price and were tested every monday morning on a selection of items, if they got 5 wrong they could face disciplinary action.
That is old skool it wouldn't happen today. I wonder if @slobberchops has a mort episode about this?
I'm lacking inspiration for Mort,though I would love to continue the series.
Checkouts were dominated by the supervisor, aka toothy Sharon in my case, though I could see well Mort intervening and trying to force his dominance on this area of the business.
Oh God, those times were really tough, but people were a bit smarter in some regards.
You should do an experiment. Take the supermarket personnel of today, let them get used to that system for a week, then test them. How many would survive?
Among all the benefits that reading brings, one of the most valuable is improved concentration, although the effects are noticeable only if you do it regularly. When you open a book, you also open up the possibility of giving yourself time and silence, beyond everything that is happening around you. You also give yourself a doorway to discovery and wisdom.
For an avid reader, reading is a pact that cannot be broken, and it can even become a ritual. I hope we never run out of readers and that books continue to be printed.
A great reflection, Erikah... much-needed words, and a wake-up call that many of us need amid this relentless bombardment of triviality day after day.
We're never going to run out of readers, but books are not printed these days as they used to be as the whole business went digital for a good reason. As an economist, I understand the reason behind it and no one can argue against it, but I still prefer printed copies for several reasons.
And yes, reading is part of intellectual life and much needed.
I remember many colleagues in school who cheated the system by watching the movies instead of the books that the teacher wanted us to read. So don't blame audiobooks! I think they are quite useful, especially when I am driving long distances hehe. And to be frank, audiobooks also demand focus. Different from movies that have images and movement, etc. So I hypothesize that movies are more harmful for the problem you mentioned!
You know that we have a reading period of time for our kids. My oldest got a love for books, and she is 9, she is reading a lot by herself. The other is still 5 and still needs me to read and the books are going by fast. So after I finish her book, I start to read a book of mine to give them some company, and I am really enjoying this moment instead of getting my phone, etc.
It's not about blame, it's about the ability. You choose audiobooks because you're driving and you can't read but as you mentioned, you read at home when you can, which is excellent!
The difference between listening to and audiobook and actually reading a book is quite big. When you read, you kind of hear a voice, that you define and articulate the words as you want. When you listen to an audiobook, all that is taken away from you and done by the narrator or reader as they like. I know these are details, technicalities but for me it matters. Reading pace is also important.
Of course they do and that's exactly what I said. When you're listening to an audiobook, if you don't focus, at some point the audio is becoming just a voice, a noise in the background while you are thinking of something else. With reading, if you lose focus, you can't read anymore.
It's good to read that your kids are reading instead of spending time in front of the screen as kids do these days. You see so many parents allowing or encouraging kids to watch tv or give kids their mobile phone, to have some time for themselves. There has to be a healthy balance and I prefer your method, using books and reading at that young age.
I spent a good portion of my morning yesterday in a waiting room reading a book. It was kind of hard because of all the distractions, but I am easily distracted by nature, so I don't really blame the environment.
It's not always easy to focus, that's for sure.
Wow that's amazing and beautiful work
What are you referring to?
You are so right about handwriting. I type on my phone so much now that my handwriting on paper looks terrible haha.
It's not just you, we're all in this situation to some extent. I guess some people didn't even learn to write properly.
True, kids growing up with tablets today probably think a pen is an ancient tool. Soon bad handwriting will just be called modern art😄
That's exactly what is going to happen.