Does Blogging Affect Reading Habits?

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Has blogging altered your book-reading habits? Reading Kevin Drum’s post led me to examine my reading behavior. I believe that on an average bloggers who have at least 10-20 feeds if not more on their reading list are constantly inundated with stuff to read. If they add few heavily-updated blogs like Boing Boing, Tech Dirt, or Instapundit or even DesiPundit to their lists, then the content simply multiples manifold. If you read blogs off a feed reader like I do, then the constantly-updating ‘unread’ posts almost create a pressure on you to finish your quota. The urge to remain updated on the latest happenings in the blogosphere and the general world around you is killing. I have been away from my feed reader for couple of days and seen the ‘unread’ posts top more than 2000 posts and I almost feel guilty for changing their status to ‘read’. I almost never do that with personal blogs especially if I have been reading that blogger for a while now. What if I miss out on an interesting development that will make me appear obsolete? This is definitely getting freaky and borders on addiction.

On a more serious note, has blogging or reading blogs or for that matter, reading anything online affected your reading habits,especially book-reading habits? I generally prefer short posts and
anything on a blog that I have to scroll more than twice, I tend to skip (on a related note, I am trying to shorten the posts that I write too). I cannot read a book that runs into hundred pages online although I can comfortably read 40-50 page research articles. Does this proclivity for short posts affect your attention span? My book-reading habit has declined significantly and I have left many books incomplete on my bookshelf, hoping to complete them each night before I sleep.

This effort has been largely unsuccessfully so far (I am still trying). Unless the book is really engrossing, I find my attention wandering and I am not pleased by this. Previously, if I was bored out of my wits and had time on my hands, I would always find some book to while away my time; nowadays with a plethora of blogs, there is always something to read online. But as Kevin says, to get in depth knowledge of a subject, there is no substitute for books. Blogs can give your snapshot of information although insightful and well-referenced, it would do us no good if we didn’t grab a book for more.

So has blogging affected your reading habits?

“Does Blogging Affect Reading Habits?” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=1014] was published Friday, December 2nd, 2005 at 9:49 am by Patrix, filed under Books, Personal, Weblogs, and tagged as blogging, Books, Internet, reading. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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http://curiousgawker.blogspot.com/ gawker
Its similar to what happens when we transitioned from single channel doordarshan to six hundred and seventy eight channel cable television. Previously, even if they showed paint drying on DD, we used to watch it with rapt attention. Then, after the advent of cable, nothing would satisfy us and we kept thinking hey maybe theres something more interesting on some other channel and I’m missing it cause I’m watching this. The “bigger better deal” syndrome.
http://ipatrix.com Patrix
Gawker, Yup! it is all about availability of choices and limited time. There is simply so much out there that it is difficult to decide if you are spending your time on the ‘best’ choice.
m
better blogs than drinks or drugs- although you could opt for girls instead- but then your ash will be on your case……..so i guess enjoy the current weakness. btw- your face has been exposed- partially- thought you wanted to be incognito…….
Jatayu
Agreed ! Regular blog-surfing over the last one year has affected my reading habits in a somewhat similar manner. I find it difficult to read anything online that is verbose and runs into more than 10-15 lines. However, it hasn’t really affected my off-line reading habit. I still enjoy and keep reading books. If anything, by perusing different blogs, I come across a variety of books that I might not otherwise have thought of reading.
Interestingly, with research papers, I find it difficult to concentrate and read them online at one sitting but can do so if the I printout the pdf file and read the hard-copy.
Blogs have also had a profound effect on how I look at everyday events, news, movies, music, sports etc – there is now a corner in my brain that continuously interprets my consiouness through a ‘blog-worthiness’ filter !!
Reagrding the addiction part – lawprof blogger Ann Althouse had this post recently:
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2005/12/internet-addiction-disorder.html
http://techpolicy.typepad.com/anuplog/ Anup
It will be a pity if people started to read less books as a result of blogging. I agree with Kevin that it is not possible to gain deeper understanding of a subject without ploughing through a book or a series of well writen, and at times lengthy, articles. Reading shorts blips of information about a subject on the web might give one a false sense of familiarity with the subject. Quite frankly, I have seen that happen to many poeple, myself included at times. On the other hand, you might consider the possibility that blogging is making several people read more than what they normally would have.
Blog related reading takes a lot of my time, but that has not stopped me from reading a print copy of a newspaper whenever I can, nor do I think that I have been reading less books.
http://swarangal.blogspot.com dreamweaver
Actually blogs have increased the variety of books I read. The last couple of books that I read were all “blog recommended”.
sqrlnt
well, blogs havent changed my reading habits outside cyberland,(well, maybe now I read a wider variety of books, but I dont know if I can attribute that solely to blogs) But online, I prefer to go blog surfing than anything else to spend my time. And yes, I dont think I can stand long posts except from a few people, whom I visit regularly..but that goes for news articles as well. But in all you could say blogs changed my surfing habits, but not reading habits.
and I cannot ever read research articles online.. I am more of a highlighter..(i know, juvenile..) but I dont get the satisfaction of having read an article unless there are pink and yellow lines on it.
http://cachacamonopoly.blogspot.com the One
Well .. one finds that being part of a community of well-read individuals actually makes one want to read more books too. But yes, blogging is definitely time-consuming .. it’s difficult to find the right balance sometimes.
http://www.indiblog.com Sooraj
God yes! I have the same books on my table for some weeks now – and everytime I look at them, I feel kind of guilty.
http://stylestation.typepad.com Jinal Shah
Totally. I only buy fiction books now (inspite of the popularity of what-i-did-today and what-i-think blogs, I refrain from reading those)
Earlier I used to buy the cool non-fiction books – about marketing, adveritising, business the works… Now I am happier and content reading the same information online (and I don’t feel guilty spending money on books I never read)
http://ipatrix.com Patrix
M, I guess now you know :) Girls instead of blogs? We wouldn’t have a Girllines for that, would we?
http://shpriya1.blogspot.com Priya Sivan
Blogging has influenced reading habit on the net and affected reading newspapers and magazines. More blogs like Desipundit and Amitvarma’s and we delve in deeper. Intellectual intoxication :)

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Does Blogging Affect Reading Habits?

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