

Saturday, June 04, 2016

Becoming what we eat

Carlos Sillero of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil,
Old Books, sxc.hu
The content we devour on the internet really can have a lasting effect on our cognitive abilities. At least, so says a new study published by the International Journal of Business Administration this May.... it may not be the screen time that’s at fault for lessened abilities—it’s the low quality of most online content. The IJBA study suggests that people who read more low-quality content had lower sophistication, syntax, cadence, and rhythm in their own writing. ... If you really can’t resist, all is not lost. The authors prescribe a heavy dose of literary fiction or academic journals as a countermeasure to fight the mental fatigue of listicles and tweetstorms and their super-ultra-meta offspring.                      --Chelsea Hassler at Slate. 
 So. So go. Go on now. Go get a book! Me too.


  1. wonderful picture; my kind of puddle...

    1. Luckily, that is a rather dry puddle in the literal way. Yet good for assuaging thirst in another.

  2. just curious: have you heard of Stevie Smith? English poet who coined the phrase: "And a good time was had by all"; she was known for her depressing novels and poetry...

    1. Oh, yes, I have read her poetry.

      Do Not!

      Do not despair of man, and do not scold him,
      Who are you that you should so lightly hold him?
      Are you not also a man, and in your heart
      Are there not warlike thoughts and fear and smart?
      Are you not also afraid and in fear cruel,
      Do you not think of yourself as usual,
      Faint for ambition, desire to be loved,
      Prick at a virtuous thought by beauty moved?
      You love your wife, you hold your children dear,
      But they are not. So is your judgement shown
      Presumptuous, false, quite vain, merely your own
      Sadness for failed ambition set outside,
      Made a philosophy of, prinked, beautified
      In noble dress and into the world sent out
      To run with the ill it most pretends to rout.
      Oh know your own heart, that heart's not wholly evil,
      And from the particular judge the general,
      If judge you must, but with compassion see life,
      Or else, of yourself despairing, flee strife.

    2. well, i see why she was depressed: she had to be around humans a lot. i'm glad i live in a (you know...) perceptive, she was, and understanding...

  3. I'll use reading lots of books as my excuse for not blogging much these days! But there are bad books amongst the good, just as is the content on the net.

    1. Indeed there are! But I expect you are wise enough to know the difference. <3

  4. Fair enough. Your Rx makes sense, so I will grab a book rather than my iPad and Kindle for these evening's consumption: I choose to nibble again upon Susan Cheever's _American Bloomsbury_. So, thanx, doc!

    1. No, no Hemingway.
      This explains:

    2. It was just a joke because you are so changeable! Which is fine...

