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Is the hyper-linked text we commonly read today diminishing our ability to understand? Are all the distractors available on our screens bringing us down?

Nicholas Carr writes in Wired magazine:

Dozens of studies by psychologists, neurobiologists, and educators point to the same conclusion: When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. Even as the Internet grants us easy access to vast amounts of information, it is turning us into shallower thinkers, literally changing the structure of our brain.1

Carr points to research that indicates hyperlinks‘ distracting nature weakens comprehension. “Research continues to show that people who read linear text comprehend more, remember more, and learn more than those who read text peppered with links.“ A 2001 study comparing readers of a hyperlinked text to readers of the same text without hyperlinks found the readers of the non-hypertext version to be seven times less likely to report the material as confusing. Another researcher found comprehension rates decreased as more hyperlinks were introduced into a text. Interestingly, it didn’t matter if readers clicked on the links or not. Apparently, just their presence was enough to lower comprehension rates.

The evidence seems convincing. It also seems to make sense—increasing our cognitive load and the associated costs of switching our attention seems counterproductive to good understanding.

“We’re exercising the neural circuits devoted to skimming and multitasking while ignoring those used for reading and thinking deeply.“ Nicholas Carr from Wired

But it’s not just hyperlinks that are a problem. My own reading experience shows that staying focused on a text and reading it from start to finish without any interruptions, can be quite challenging. I often find myself opening up new tabs as an idea darts into my mind, or to check my e-mail, or read the news… only to discover several minutes later (sometimes hours) that I had abandoned the original article. Sometimes I’ll be distracted by the music in the background or the chiming of incoming mail.

Luckily, there is some help that can free us from the distractions of hyperlinks and cluttered pages, forcing us to abandon the “shallows” and venture into the deep end of thought. The good people at Arc90 have devised a free utility2 that strips the page of hyperlinks, moving them to the bottom of the page in footnote fashion while also removing all non-textual items from the page. It’s easy to install and works quite well. While it cleans up the page and helps focus my reading, it still doesn’t help me if I choose to open up browser tabs, or check my email. A cursory search of Firefox plugins did not turn up anything that could help me out in that area. If such a plugin did exist, I’d want it to lockdown my computer, disable audio, and prevent me from doing anything but looking at clean text. It would use the number of words in the text to determine how long it should stay in lockdown mode. Since we all read at different rates, users should be able to calibrate the plugin for their reading rate. The plugin would essentially create the same environment you had as a kid when you’d read the back of the cereal box because there was nothing better to do. If you were a slow eater, you’d eventually try to read the ingredients.

As is often the case with technology, it rouses my internal dialog.

I ask: Is this type of technology just a cop-out? Shouldn’t we be learning how to deal with distractors? After all, they are always going to be around.

I respond: If the technology can reduce my distractions and increase my understanding, then it’s worthwhile. Learning to ignore hyperlinks and other media on the page can be counterproductive. They exist in most cases, to provide more understanding of the text. It’s not like the bush on the side of the road that you’ve learned to not notice as you drive your car. That bush isn’t useful to your current mission; the hyperlinks and embedded video probably are. This type of technology would make these distractors useful in the end by executing the delivery of information in a more mind-friendly way, allowing me to see them after I have read the text free from distractions.

I ask: Shouldn’t we learn to control our impulses when we are reading and just stay on the page and avoid checking our email?

I respond: Maybe. Learning impulse control seems to be a good thing. Psychologists have shown in studies3 that kids who can postpone instant gratification and wait in order to receive a reward (marshmallow test3) do well in areas like academics, personal finance, etc. However, the same researchers point out that not looking at4 the distractor is the best strategy for avoiding distraction. It’s hard to read a text and not look at the hyperlinks, so being able to disable them seems like a winning strategy. When it comes to staying on task by not opening up new tabs or checking my email, it gets more complicated. Walter Mischel, designer of the marshmallow study, notes that we can decrease our impulsivity with practice and by using various strategies (e.g. pretending the marshmallow is not a marshmallow). Mischel adds, “And if you don’t practice then you’ll never figure out how to distract yourself. You won’t develop the best delay strategies, and those strategies won’t become second nature.” 5 So, maybe for hyperlinks, I should just disable them, but for impulse control and staying on task, I should try some strategies that help me stay on task and practice them until they become automatic. But a confounding issue is that I really like to open up new tabs when an idea pops into my head. Reading something interesting inspires new thinking. If I don’t act on those new ideas quickly, then they’re often lost.

I ask: Are there other things we can do that don’t require new technology?

I respond: I think as writers, we could look at how we publish, how we lay out a page. What styles lead to the most comprehension and on-task behavior?  Should we put footnotes on the bottom of a text and avoid hyperlinks in the main body? Should we put graphics, videos, etc. at the bottom of the page if we decide to include them? Are we evaluating the value of the non-textual items we publish or are they just there as eye-candy?

A simple fix for many distracting pages may be to just click on the “Print” version which is usually cleaner. Also, you can turn off images on your browser but we’d want an easy way to switch them on and off. The reality is that we like our non-textual information. It adds richness and excitement to online material. The real question I think, is “How to we deliver online ideas in a way that improves understanding and fosters better thinking without stripping it of its richness?” For now, I’m going to stick with Arc90’s solution and practice some self-control when it comes to the other distractors—unless I have a good idea. They’re too valuable to lose.

“Once you realize that will power is just a matter of learning how to control your attention and thoughts, you can really begin to increase it.” Walter Mischel

Sources:

1 http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/

2 http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

3 http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer?currentPage=1

4, 5 http://www.diigo.com/annotated/d245b9e4dcea5429554762549a122c79

Related: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.