I doubt
I've ever made this known, but in a life that is so abundantly demanding of any interested
person's mind, I am highly unlikely to attempt to read or get very much out of
hugely long articles or lengthy papers - I just want the back of the envelope version
pretty much all the time.
Don't get me wrong, if there are books or papers I
really want to devour, I can easily enjoy digesting them in the comfort of a relaxing
armchair, but online you're unlikely to pique my interest with interminably
long-winded blogs, articles or papers. To use a food analogy, when I'm online I
don't want to be eating big meals, I want to be nibbling at little tidbits
I'm
sharing this not as any kind of act of prescription, but just because it's a realisation
that has become more and more prominently acute in my own awareness of myself, and
I was starting to wonder why I didn't used to feel it with quite so much vigour,
and whether it's because the internet now makes more demands on our attention,
or whether, as I think is the case, most of us prefer the back of the envelope
version but differ in the extent to which we own that desire.
