Dear dichotomous and perpetuallygoogleplexed person,
I read your article and I have to say, I totally agree, my attention span is not what it used to be. I am skimming uncontrollably, skipping lines, and re-reading the same word like there's no tomorrow. Perhaps I have acquired a particularly virulent strain of pathological A.D.D., or perhaps it is sunspots. Maybe it's those blue light waves that computers incessantly emit. Or perhaps my life has just gotten more hectic.
To tell you the truth, between the privilege of 18 credit hours and the insane job that enables me to maintain that privilege, I find myself a little swamped. You know, I get weird when I've only had three hours of sleep and a bag of peanuts. Maybe you feel the same way. I hear stress can actually distract you from the other stuff you're doing, even if doing it somehow alleviates stress.
Now that we've established the fact that I'm a sarcastic IDIOT, let us approach this conundrum logically. Perhaps we aren't as smart as we used to be, but if we don't really need to be that smart anymore, then I have to ask: who cares? Then you would probably be all smart and reply that you care, obviously, because you wrote a freakin novel about it. If you're worried about being stupid, maybe you should just forgo the internet (please don't pretend Google is the extent of interweb issues) and be smarter than everyone else.
Now just because I'm cranky and I need to superficially shoot down everything you say doesn't mean I'm not actually contemplating this issue. It is more a speed thing, I think, than a concentration thing. The automobile, therefore, is at fault as much as the internet (if not more so.) Now with this newfound speed, I have not lost concentration. Rather, my concentration powers focus entirely on finding ACCURATE and PERTINENT information, which the internet seems to have a dearth of (when in fact, the first few sites are almost invariably garbage because of the way that Google arranges them... by hits). You actually further my automobile notion with your comment on how long internet articles are... which, by nature, should counter the effects of our intellectual stup...ors. Digging can be done on the internet. You’re not forced to surf. I am similarly wondering about the quality of internet writings, and wondering if that affects our reading style more. Do you know how many articles I’ve read that could have been better written by an erudite fifth-grader?
Can we still love, hate, and want?
What is really important in life?
I think that passion is the key to maintaining our human characteristics. As long as we care that we’re demoted to the position of tiny neurons in this big, brainy supercomputer, then we’re still us. Is that what you were asking? Sorry, you just went on a lot of tangents and I think I missed your central idea…