Slowness, writing and comprehension | Pop Wuping
Through-out grade school I was repeatedly taught to write notes on whatever I was reading and to rewrite any other notes as a means to comprehend the material I was studying. I think I read somewhere since, that writing involves higher level cognitive processes that aid in memory (I don’t have time to find the source). Even my Mandarin teacher forced me to write ad nauseam pinyin, and later characters, on the white board as a means to remember and to help keep me warm in winter.

And ends with:

Online reading is part of this as are newer formats like RSS. We try to ‘see’ as much data as possible. Notice how much of the productivity software developed lately is about ‘tasks’ and concerns small snippets of text?

What effects does this have on the ability to concentrate? When I told a doctor I was having trouble focusing he advised to read real books slowly.

I wonder if there is anyway to actually slow down the process and still use digital tools? I’m not convinced I ever truly read anything onscreen as well as in a book. It’s more scanning and collecting.

Slow is the way to go.
The brain wants pleasure and excitement, and it gets more of that from scanning and letting many snippets wash over the receptors… learning something by heart or reading a long text or writing by hand is a drag, but very good for you. Last year the BBC had an article about brain development in kids and that it was discovered that learning to remember long poems by heart actually triggered important devepment in little minds.

We humans are incredibly short-sighted, aren’t we.

Slow is the way to go.

There is also Slowfood.