About Exercise, Skimming,Blogging & Personality

My "Write Everyday" exercise is taking place here today because today I have something to "write about", that is, address as an exercise. How's that for thoughts about birds and a single stone?

At Fresca , she raised the question of skimming as she reads, finding that this new to her reading habit, and wondering aloud -all over the Internet no less- if this sort of reading behavior might be the result of all the stuff to read that (she) finds confronting her. Several of her friends chimmed in agreeing that they, too, are noticing that about themselves, and also concurring that it may be due to the abundance of reading material on the Internet. I'm here today to say, "me too."

Now in the first place why would I have to say it here, on my own space -such as it is "my own"- rather than in "comment" to Fresca's entry at her space? Well, when I read her post, it struck a chord with me -I find myself saying that a lot; I suspect it might be true- as having both thought about this before and having read it elsewhere. Because this is an essay of sorts, and "Essays are how we speak to one another in print ..." (Edward Hoagland 1999), where we my get a bit wordy and a bit short on on references. In this case I am without reference as to where I'd read about the change in people's reading habits, and what I have to say here is too long for a "comment" space. And inapproriate too. The other reason too, that I'm commenting on her blog here, is that to one of my comments -a short one- Fresca commented back that if I had the time to comment daily on her daily blog, then I had time to write my own. I took that as a friendly challenge, and using the time I do have and the need for this exercise, I'm commenting here.

What had occured to me, and was affirmed in whatever it was that I read, was that many of us who do read, are becoming overwhelmed by the quanity of print before us. Of course, we partially subject ourselves to this conditon by tuning into the internet, blogs in particular. But then I suspect that many, if not most, of us do that as a was both getting material, and focusing ourselves. But then once there in this self-selected place, or places, we're often confronted with the long out-pouring of someone's notions and interests thanks to their incredible typing ability. And there we are, finding what we sought, and overwhelmed. And still, no doubt, there are other places to "go" yet, other reading to be done. And so, we skim.

Yes, we skim. But my bet is that we become practiced skimmers, and in that ability pick up the words that stimulate the concepts that will draw or repel us to further reading and inquiry toward satisfaction, or conclusion. We skim, getting what we need.

Now there is one final element that I need to address in this entry today. Yet, once more about personality. In the course of getting physical exercise just yesterday playing racquetball, I was having a conversation with my "opponent" before we started. He, very near my age, seemed to be coming to an awareness of the "those things" like Facebook and all the time some people seem to spend on the Internet. He was dumb-founded that people would want to associate with one another in this manner, and may have gone on to who-knows-what other comments until I inserted that I "write" on the Internet. He smiled and shrugged. It gave me opportunity to tell him of how there are extraverted, gregarious, persons such as himself, and then there are those of us who are introverted and often interact best in writing and "alone". He smiled and shrugged. Again.

Because I am the introvert that I am, one of long-perception options, it takes me time often to mull over a situation or a notion before I respond to it. Such is often the case when I read other people's postings; I can't, or don't have time, then and there to respond thoughtfully. So there.