Digital screens are in our pockets, on our wrists, in our briefcases, purses, suitcases, cars, planes, living rooms, on our desks at work and now even on gas pumps. No matter where we go, how we get there or what field we work in we are the generation of screens. Screen reading is the new normal and we all are adapting, it’s a new culture and way of living, the way we are all experiencing life. We most importantly have adapted to read this way for work and pleasure.
We read on screens for convenience, access to faster and updated information that the printed word can’t provide. However, it appears we may have also lost in this transition the attention span, imagination, creativity and analytical skills the written word provides us. It’s easy and simple to pick up a screen and share, tweet, research and bookmark anything we find to anyone all over the world. But at what cost has “easy” replaced our need to evaluate.
Our screens are now the first place we go to look for news, friends, and answers whether at home or in the workplace. The internet has made us all speed readers, scanning news articles, stock reports, reviews, events pages, menus, to find only the keywords we need instead of actually absorbing the information to make informed decisions, to in fact, learn to think.
In the business world we have seen the conversion from a paper world to an electronic world to achieve “faster, easier and more profitable” with less investment in space, time and energy. But to what gain? The way we teach, interact with each other, create and communicate all comes in to play to create a healthy and happy and therefore more productive environment. It appears to me we may need to have a throwback movement when the natural urges of all people need the touch and feel of something other than an electronic brain.