Only by encoding information in our biological memory can we weave the rich intellectual associations that form the essence of personal knowledge and give rise to critical and conceptual thinking.
It is like the relationship between the proofs of the argument, only when we have our memory in our brains, we can have our unique ability of critical thinking.
This story has a twist. It turns out that we aren’t very good at distinguishing the knowledge we keep in our heads from the information we find on our phones or computers.
Human-beings tend to be arrogant, we should not to think we are so smart like the smart devices. It is great enough to know how to use and control the smart devices. The point is not to compete to a technology device. That's not a wise strategy.
A quarter-century ago, when we first started going online, we took it on faith that the web would make us smarter: More information would breed sharper thinking.
Indeed, we can easily find the correct information in the first time. However, the web is just a tool, we use it to know the answers. We won't get smart because we get some new tools, right?
Because the phone is packed with so many forms of information and so many useful and entertaining functions, it acts as what Dr. Ward calls a “supernormal stimulus,” one that can “hijack” attention whenever it is part of our surroundings — and it is always part of our surroundings.
The great impactions come form the huge usefulness. So, sometimes the most useful thing may bring us a larger harm.
By design, they grab and hold our attention in ways natural objects never could.
They do can present us the attractive and entertainment technology experience. Even children don't know any knowledge can be attracted by them easily.
they pull at our minds when we’re talking with people in person, leaving our conversations shallower and less satisfying.
I hate that when I talking to someone, but he is checking his phone. The feeling is terrible and I will play my phone as well so it will kill the talk.
A study of nearly a hundred secondary schools in the U.K., published last year in the journal Labour Economics, found that when schools ban smartphones, students’ examination scores go up substantially, with the weakest students benefiting the most.
According to this study, I found the main cause of the low scores students get is the distraction by the phones. Abandon using phones during school is obviously a bright way to raise students' scores.
whose phones remained out of sight.
The most fundamental and effective way to avoiding the influence of phones is putting them out of sight.
Just suppressing the desire to check our phone, which we do routinely and subconsciously throughout the day, can debilitate our thinking.
It's normally that people want to quit the things they are doing but check their phones. So this will let us speed the working process, which will probably lower the quality of works.
Smartphones have become so entangled with our existence that, even when we’re not peering or pawing at them, they tug at our attention, diverting precious cognitive resources.
Indeed, when we working with the phone on side, we will save some attention to the phone. Iy will decrease our focus time on the working.
And that means putting some distance between ourselves and our phones.
When we work or play without the phones, we can get more concentrate on the thing we do. In this way, we can feel more fun doing things.
When we constrict our capacity for reasoning and recall or transfer those skills to a gadget, we sacrifice our ability to turn information into knowledge.
We should not solely pursue the great convenience the smart phone brings us, but focus our intelligence development by think something ourselves.
They remained oblivious even as the phones disrupted their focus and thinking.
I don't think anybody will know it till read this article. I will tell my friends this crazy thing!
As the phone’s proximity increased, brainpower decreased.
It is really amazing that our phones can influence our brainpower even without be playing by us. I will put away my phone when I don't need to use it at home from now on.
Some of the students were asked to place their phones in front of them on their desks; others were told to stow their phones in their pockets or handbags; still others were required to leave their phones in a different room.
In my opinion, the groups who were close to the smart phones would loss the contest.
The second assessed “fluid intelligence,” a person’s ability to interpret and solve an unfamiliar problem.
This task can show the creativity and innovation of test takers .
One test gauged “available working-memory capacity,” a measure of how fully a person’s mind can focus on a particular task.
This is like a test of careful ability. People who can concentrate on thinking will perform better. In another word, the test measures the ability of people not to rely on mobile phones to live.
What the earlier research didn’t make clear is whether smartphones differ from the many other sources of distraction that crowd our lives.
I think the smartphones are more important than other sources of distraction. As the author mentions before, phones are being with people in every moment. So we tend to treat our smartphones more serious when they catch our attentions every time.
while they’re in the middle of a challenging task, their focus wavers, and their work gets sloppier — whether they check the phone or not.
I have the same feeling, that's why our phones must be turn to silent mode when we have classes.
produces a welter of distractions that makes it harder to concentrate on a difficult problem or job.
It matches my previous thoughts, various alters do can distract us from things we currently do.
As the brain grows dependent on the technology, the research suggests, the intellect weakens.
We began to rely on the devices when we don't know the answers, but not to think ourselves. The " use it or lose it" theory also proven this.
So what happens to our minds when we allow a single tool such dominion over our perception and cognition?
Before reading the following content, I guess the influence mainly is about our distractions after using the electronic devices.
It’s hard to think of another product that has provided so many useful functions in such a handy form.
It had been a dream for me when I was a child, to have a smart mini computer with me all the time. Now the smart phones really be loved by us because it's well- functional feature.
checking its messages and heeding its alerts scores of times a day.
A good way to get rid of different kinds of notifications is to forbidden them which unnecessary to be known for us, like the phone games and video apps. We will feel more independent when we turn off some meaningless alerts on phones.
In a 2015 Gallup survey, more than half of iPhone owners said that they couldn’t imagine life without the device.
Sometimes when we forget to bring our phones when we waiting in line or doing something alone, we will feel helpless and terrible because we can have a sense of embarrassing, for have nothing to kill the time.
The two of you will be inseparable.
There's a saying is the phone has become the third hand of human begins, which shows the importance of the phone now. It is hard to see the people come out without their phone anymore,
If you’re like the typical owner, you’ll be pulling your phone out and using it some 80 times a day, according to data Apple collects.
According to my data center on my phone, the average daily based time I use my phone is between 2 hours and 4 hours.
And if its appearance on Twitter equals being published, do I even have the rights to it anymore?
I think in this case, the author already has a patent for Twitter content.
another draft and maybe another and another, until I thought it was ready to be published, which it was.
Only once and for all manuscripts have been polished and modified to get the final published manuscript.
but at the root of this defense wasn’t some terrible secret he had to hide but rather an idea of writing as a private ceremony.
Sometimes secrets can be the positive or some privacy secretes. It is not true when we get used to treat secrets in an bad way.
Is tweeting the same as publishing?
I think so, cause Twitter can be seen by many people who keep focus on the writer's works. It is boring to open to public in advance.
Does a piece of writing that is never seen by anyone other than its author even exist? Does a thought need to be shared to exist?
I don't think the author should think about his thoughts before the article is published. This is a professional norm. I think that if an author publishes his own scattered thoughts, it is not comparable to the final unified systemic article.
(Robert Musil
A famous writer and he had an unfinished novel. [(https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:%E9%A6%96%E9%A1%B5)
“Don’t talk it out” was one of the best pieces of advice I ever got as a writer.
When you say it, you lose the mystery that the work should have, just like the early spoiler of the movie. This is a very unwise act.
The line between writing and talking has also been blurred, and we can imagine that the line between talking and thinking will be, too, at some point.
I agree with this. Sometimes when we talk on the phone, we will write our own ideas on paper to better present our views. In addition, when we sometimes talk to our friends about our own problems, we finally come up with a solution to the problem.
. We live in a transparent age, and yet there is much of value that happens in the opaque quarters of our own ambivalent minds, seen by no one else, and seen by us only after a long period of concentration and looking.
In such an era of high-transparency, many people have unselfishly shared the philosophies they have personally experienced with those young people who have just entered the society. However, young people can't understand the true meaning unless they have experienced the tempering of life.
When I think about Salinger in his later years—literally half of his life—I feel exasperated by this withholding and the elevation of silence into the highest virtue.
The author may feel exasperated because he did not understand the details of Salinger's life. But this is exactly where Salinger's wisdom lies, leaving behind the infinite imagination of future generations.
Who is the appraiser of one’s own unpublished, or even unwritten, work?
Could it be that if the author posts something on Twitter, would he change his work to rely on Twitter's comments? I don't think so. The right to grasp and modify the work should always be in the hands of the author.
You could say it imbues writing with a sense of performance, though writing has always involved performance in the sense of performance anxiety.
Indeed, writing is always anxious. But I think that writing Twitter can greatly alleviate or even eliminate this anxiety in writing. Because this is different from a private personal diary, when you post to the public, you are active. Therefore, the anxiety of writing in this positive state of mind will naturally decrease.
That is why so many Salinger fans feel that their relationship with his books, especially to “Catcher in the Rye,” is like an intimacy shared.
It turns out that the secret process of creation can produce a more private work, allowing readers to have a direct dialogue with the author. This is really amazing, it is a great result of the author's intentional writing.
Perhaps you jot it down in a note before it vanishes, so that you can mull it over in the future.
A very good statement, some people send some social status not to show others, but to remind themselves. Or in the future they can look at what they are like now.
There is no there there”
I am curious: What does "There is no there there" mean? So I checked this phrase, it refers to that the person/thing/item is not that important, or nothing special.
varying degrees, sour, funny, fatalistic, and bitingly true. It’s a comedian’s form. The primal tweet may be, “Take my wife, please!”
This description is very lively and interesting, and it shows that many of the author's literary creations come from the feelings of real life. The authors speculate that if Alain de Botton had Twitter, he would reveal the source of various life experiences in the work, such as a wife who makes him helpless.
varying degrees, sour, funny, fatalistic, and bitingly true. It’s a comedian’s form. The primal tweet may be, “Take my wife, please!”
This description is very lively and interesting, and it shows that many of the author's literary creations come from the feelings of real life. The authors speculate that if Alain de Botton had Twitter, he would reveal the source of various life experiences in the work, such as a wife who makes him helpless.
Henry James
Henry James is a famous American novelist and literary critic. His masterpieces include novels: "An American", "Portrait of a Lady", "Dove Wings", "Envoys" and "Golden Bowl".
Would they ignore it or engage and go down the rabbit hole?
I learned a new saying "go down the rabbit hole". I checked the meaning of this short sentence, which means that things will enter an unknown process. Such an interesting rhetoric expresses the possibility that the trend of things is like entering the wonderful rabbit hole of "Alice in Wonderland".
For writers, this is an especially strange development.
If the author continues to post his new ideas on social media, it really has a two-side impact. On the one hand, we can learn about the writer's new inspiration and get inspired at the first time. On the other hand, this may reduce the attractiveness of the author's new work to the reader because of the lack of some mystery.
Though Twitter is not exactly a new writing technology, it is a technology that is affecting a lot of writers.
Twitter is more like a new communication channel. Almost everyone has a Twitter account, and almost everyone has used Twitter.
the little alphabet-planets retained some of their punishing, mechanical glamour.
The mechanical metal texture is indeed very attractive, just like the mechanical keyboard that is now popular. When I hear the sound of tapping metal when I type, I will become more creative.
It seemed, at the time, like a radical innovation,
All inventions are radical at first, and change always brings different opinions. The benefits of the invention will always show up as new users increase, and then replace existing products.
when I pulled open a drawer and found a small box containing a bunch of discarded typewriter heads for the I.B.M. Selectric typewriter
I have never seen a typewriter. It is similar to a thick keyboard.Typewriters have greatly improved the efficiency of the dissemination of literary works. At the same time, the typewriter was a good assistant for human communication. The typewriters I have in mind often appear in the spy films of the last century.
At its center was a typeball—like a golf ball with letters—that leapt up to punch each letter onto the page with astonishing violence.
Here is an image for the IBM Typewriter heads.
Here is a YouTube video for IBM typeball working in slow motion. https://youtu.be/RTtKaqIpOJc
We remember bits of a book not just by the words, but how they looked on the page — where they were located, how our hands lay next to them.
When we read the paper book, in addition to reading the text, we also gained other feelings about the book. This diverse feeling is that e-books cannot be replaced.
But when I clicked on War and Peace, I felt myself assume a kabuki seriousness: I shall now immerse myself in a Work of Art.
The author sees reading as a serious matter, unlike relaxed Twitter and video games. In fact, doing other things is the same, and I can pay attention to things in order to do things well.
none of the features we typically use to navigate and orient ourselves in a book. It took a long time to arrive at their elegant modern design.
Modern mobile books have become very user-friendly, with navigation, chapters and page numbers.
The ship moves independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless, feeble man
This is a very famous truth, and the people who win the hearts of the people will get the authority. In the war years, all orders will be reshuffled.
Tolstoy knew a lot about fighting, having witnessed the Crimean War up front, which is why his descriptions of conflict — his precise sketches of battlefield chaos, his pingponging from perspective to perspective — have such a ring of authority.
It is more convincing and immersive for writers to write their own experiences into novels. Tolstoy, who witnessed the war, successfully painted a magnificent scene of war in the book.
Paper books have long been praised as the redoubt of the deep mind.
The charm of printing is the thick feeling of holding the palm of the hand, the physical feeling of touching the text, and the smell of the ink.
Paying deep, sustained attention is a grind if you’re not getting any payoff for your effort. When it comes to a bad book, as Schopenhauer quipped, “life is too short.”
Life is short, we have to read more good books in a short life. But the criteria for judging good books are not only immersive. Just like war and peace, it is boring in front. Only after 15% of the previous one can understand the deep meaning of the author.
But when you read the essays and diaries of those people in the past, their cries of dismay are nearly identical to ours: Our minds wander too easily! The world won’t leave us alone! Our ancestors had it better!
The inability to concentrate is probably a human nature. Primitive humans must maintain a high degree of vigilance and attention to changes in the environment in order to notice the beasts. Therefore, they must have a very sensitive sensitivity, and they must also prevent enemy attacks when doing current work. Over time, this has become a major feature of humanity.
so that I could decide to actively ignore them, instead of responding with a Pavolovian lunge for the app.
The author actively controls himself/herself from the influence of mobile phone messages and concentrates on reading.
To pass the time, I’d pull out War and Peace, intending to read for only a few minutes — but then get sucked in, and stay there for an hour, lying on the ground.
When people concentrate on reading and are attracted by books, time becomes very fast. We just want to swim in the book.
. I started talking to the book — or rather, talking to Siri’s servers, which were transcribing my speech (and, unnervingly, saving copies of everything I say for two years.
The new note-taking function of voice dictation is not possible with ordinary paper books. This is indeed a big advantage of e-books.
We break it ourselves, voluntarily, checking and rechecking Facebook the instant our mind wanders away from the plot of a novel.
I often can't help but check the news of social software and let myself get out of the current thing. In fact, this will cause habitual inattention and inability to do the thing you are doing. I should try to fix this problem in the future.
Indeed, I so enjoyed revisiting those notes that I wanted a paper copy of them.
The author not only took notes, but also printed them into a book to revisit the experience of reading. This is a good habit. I will use this method to organize my notes in the next reading.
It’s flowing around us like a stream, to be scooped up whenever you need refreshment.
The author vividly depicts the convenience of people reading in the Internet age.
but also because I want my local bookstore to survive
Indeed, traditional bookstores need to be maintained by good people like the author.
I used to enjoy alerts; but with War and Peace, I shut them all down.
Turning off reminders is a thorough approach. We can't believe in our own consciousness. The external environment has a powerful influence on us.
On the contrary, it was reinforcing it, helping me stitch Tolstoy together. I doubt I’d have gotten half of what I got out of War and Peace without Wikipedia ready at hand. It’s hard to call that a distraction.
I agree with the author's point of view. It is not distracting to check the information on the Internet. Instead, it is an expression of immersive reading and seeking background information.
War and Peace is an awfully complex book. The cast of characters is so convoluted that early editions shipped with full-spread mappings of who was who, to help you keep it straight in you head.
The reason why many people don't like to read large novels is that they can't remember a large number of character names. In addition, the Russian city name in the book will also cause headaches for many readers who don't understand Russia.
If I had a Kindle meter for my life, it would probably show I’m — what, maybe 11% of along the path of the historic novels I hope to read?
Here the author is very humorous and imagines that his life will have a Kindle progression. I think the author's reading habits are very good, gradually filling his/her own blanks, and the author begins to read large novels. Sometimes changes can bring unexpectedly good results.
then glanced down to see I was at Location 152 of 25053. I was only sixth-tenths of 1% into the book.
I also often pay attention to the percentage progress bar below the e-book, I think the shortcomings of this feature outweigh the advantages. If we care too much about the progress of reading, we will speed up reading and reduce our understanding. This is not conducive to understanding the subject and content of the book.
And the phone, I figured, would be my instrument of success.
A positive attitude is often the beginning of success, and I appreciate the author's optimism. Sometimes, self-affirmation and positive psychological hints will promote our efficiency.
Then, to bury my feelings of guilt at having failed at finishing a Great Work, I’d hide it in the remote corner of a bookshelf where it would, hopefully, cease to haunt me.
The author vividly wrote the mentality of not reading the book, which truly reflects that we tend to evade reality if we do not achieve the results we want. Hiding unfinished books will comfort us.
Maybe I’d even carry it with me on the subway, which would look pretty formidable.
It is indeed inconvenient to carry a heavy work on the subway. I have a similar experience. If the subway is crowded, I can't open the page at the peak of the traffic.
This spring, I visited the British Museum with my family. We stopped by their display of cuneiform tablets, and I pulled out my phone.
I think "Pulled out" can show the portability of a mobile phone. Just like cuneiform tablets, we convey more information through small objects.
e way poets wield metaphor like a blunt-force instrument, diving right into the deep end of their métier, with little of the scene-setting and dithering of prose.
Poetry can reflect both social phenomena and poetry's feelings and thoughts. Through a short length of poetry, you can read long-form understanding and association. Many poems in ancient China have been passed down to the present day, because the poet's thoughts and social experiences are worthy of our analysis and taste.
If you assume, as Baron does, that in the decades to come books will migrate more and more to screens — screens that more suited to skimming and tweet-authoring than intensive reading — then what does this mean for fate of the really big books?
It is impossible to deny a possibility that children who grow up in the era of the gradual demise of paper books may prefer reading on the screen. People who have not been exposed to paper books are more likely to adapt to e-books.
Baron found that 85% of young people reported multitasking while reading on a digital device, while only 26% did so with a paper book. “I don’t absorb as much,” complained one.
Indeed, compared to traditional paper books, reading e-books on mobile phones is more distracting, and there are too many tempting things on the phone to distract us.
It may also be, as the scholar Anne Mangen has found in her work, that our minds are slightly befuddled by navigating ebooks. When you can’t as easily flip through a text, you feel more at sea.
As scholars have said, reading without flipping pages makes people very confused like in the sea. I also think that reading e-books can't be immersed, and reading e-books for a long time will make my eyes cry.
the linguist Naomi Baron surveyed the research and concluded that digital screens are pretty lousy environments for deep, immersive reading.
This sentence echoes the beginning, and it shows the results of expert research. We are not easy to concentrate on reading e-books. Later, the author mentioned that reading in front of the screen is impossible to read into the soul. The side reflects that the author is a person who loves reading very much, and has a deep understanding of "soul reading."
According to some scholars and pundits, I probably shouldn’t have done this.
This opening sentence shows the author's determination to experience e-book reading, although many experts and scholars do not recommend it. This attitude reminds me of a truth that seeks truth through practice. Only when I have experienced it, I have more experience.