People read differently on the internet. We tend to scan paragraphs, searching for key words. We often decide quickly how much time the page is worth – or move on.
Life is short – it’s probably a good habit on the web, and website writers have become good at catering to this habit. But I have found myself scanning off-line, in newspapers, books, textbooks, even exams!
We can’t scan without losing meaning. At best, comprehension drops as we skip over minor details (statistics, facts, lists of examples like this one), but at worst we can miss the entire meaning completely.
Consider this example. Read the following as you would normally on the net:
Liverpool Street is the finest point of departure in the whole of Southern England because wherever you go from it, whether to Southend or, ultimately, to Outer Mongolia, it cannot fail to be an improvement.
Does the writer like Liverpool Street? Unless you are a more careful reader than me, you read the first few words and skimmed the rest, especially the details in the middle, and so decided that the writer is speaking favourably. But, in fact, they do not “because wherever you go from it … it cannot fail to be an improvement.” By scanning, the content can be completely misunderstood!
My challenge is this: By all means, scan a page to decide if it is worth reading, but if you you consider it worthwhile then read it properly – especially if it is offline.
i didn’t scan it, i just skiped it
Haha even better! Case in point.
i knew you would tell me what it meant so i didn’t feel the need to