I realized the other day that I take more information in small doses than I once did. I grab a  bit here and a bit there and I'm a bit concerned. I'll go on record that I don't like USA Today. It's not in-depth enough. But like my husband says, sometimes it's ok to have something written in crayon...everything can't be detailed. I find that when traveling on business I'm happy to find it outside my door in the morning. Why? Because having "something" to read while I get dressed and maybe grab a bite is better than having nothing.   

What is that?  I like to think of myself as a "reader". I always have been. But it's sad how little time I spend really reading. I do a lot of scanning. I do a lot of grabbing pieces of information on the run. I dream of having some type of mass transit in our city so I could read instead of drive. Am I alone? Do you also find yourself snatching at information as it flies past you? Am I the only one concerned that I'm falling prey to consuming information in headlines and 140 character tweets and texts? Am I just showing my age if I feel that creativity, thoughtfulness and thinking skills are refined when you read a full book cover to cover? Is skimming and taking in information on the run the new reading? With good skimming skills, can we get solid comprehension? I'm not sure.

In the online world Jakob Nielsen, one of the best on web usability, found that although people spend more time on pages with more words and more information, they only spend 4.4 seconds more for each additional 100 words. By calculating reading rates, he concluded that when you add more verbiage to a page, people will only read 18% of it. He also found that on an average visit, users read half the information on those pages with 111 words or less. People spend time understanding the page layout and navigation features and looking at the images and NEVER read during every single second of a page visit. It's like having a story book with photos. It's enjoyable. 

I guess everyone really needs to find their own balance when it comes to digesting the information they come across or they seek out.  I just wonder how we're training our brains and if we should at least give it some conscious thought.  Maybe I should stop trying to take so much in with just small bites and set aside those "stolen" minutes into bigger blocks. What do you think?