If You're Reading This--Then We Have a Problem

Yes, we do. That my words appear to you only because of the internet, of course, is ironic. You really should not be reading this. Why is the internet so deadly? From just one standpoint, that of scholarship and study, observe what it does, what it prevents, and how it damages people.

1. "Research," if indeed it can be called that, conducted on the internet often resembles a lone miner tunneling away in darkness, so focused on the topic at hand that broader connections disappear entirely. And don't tell me providing hyperlinked "sources" does anything to alleviate the problem. Fact is, the role that serendipity plays in scholarship is utterly lost. The book on a nearby shelf that catches your eye, available only in a good library, and which provides some insight into a heretofore unknown idea, that book will never be seen. Not to mention that neither some advertiser or zealous internet service provider can ban some old volume and its "dangerous" ideas, which have rested on a library shelf for decades, if not centuries.
2. Does internet based research contribute to a shortened ability to concentrate and focus? Anyone able to compare students of today to those of just a little more than a decade ago will probably tell you the answer is obvious. Yes. The very notion that someone will take the time to settle down with a large volume, or several large volumes, and spend time noting what they've read, that notion is quickly disappearing as well. Any professor or teacher unwise enough to assign, say, Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel will likely find their charges churning out one lifeless Wikipedia summary after the other. The very ability to read itself is being challenged.
3. And this leads directly to the issue of scholarly discipline. Internet sources undermine this virtue as well. Its very technology makes plagiarism and cheating easier. And that same technology, the headache producing screen with its bright glare, probably also works against anyone desiring to sit down and stare at a sentence, some lines, or a paragraph at length in order simply to let the words and ideas wash over them. How much more likely it is that somebody's grubby paw will reach for some Cheetoh's rather than take the time to concentrate on what they've just encountered on the page. Oh, and, yes, that is another victim of the internet, the "page", as we know it, with its markings, quick referencing, and immediate visual clue as to the positioning of an idea in a book, article, or story.