I'm currently at uni, studying computer science. I can very much relate to the problem of being unable to read a book to completion, however I fundamentally disagree with the reasons given in the article. In my experience, it's not a problem of attention, but simply that I don't have the time to read. I love reading, and wish I had more time to read; pre-uni I read, or programmed in my spare time, but now I'm at uni I find that how my time is distributed has fundamentally changed. today, my time is split between the masses of coursework I have, societies (computing, music and sport), and sleeping. I personally think that it would be far more powerful to study a group of young people who have far more time and fewer commitments. I sometimes feel that my generation has some of the highest commitments and workloads ever which is, admittedly, compounded by different forms of media, and this is really what is damaging the skill of long form reading.
If it is honestly true that you simply don't have enough time because there are too many tasks with higher priority no including just leisuring time on Facebook or HN, then to me it sounds like you are a person with outright great time management abilities. For me, I spend 90 % of my free time doing completely useless stuff like browsing HN many times a day, hanging out in IRC, chatting on Skype etc. and it feels that I can't get things done which I should, and even would want to. This includes reading some books which interest me, programming and general tinkering with things which once used to be the most interesting thing for me.
My point being, for someone who can manage their time almost perfectly, perhaps reading a book is just about managing the time, but for us who can't... It's not so simple. :(
I will admit, I don't manage my time tremendously; I get up late, I go to bed late. However, the time in between is spent doing the things I mentioned before, not on idly flicking between youtube, facebook etc.
I'm not sure - I may suffer from the same problem the article is describing, but I definitely feel that reducing (or changing) the workload (at least the mental workload) would allow me to manage my time better.
100% agree. Typically lack of time is prioritizing it to other distractions that could be removed. Doing some self examination of how one spends their time makes you realize how much time you spend doing other things that could be eliminated if you really want to read instead.
Ocassionally I see memes pop up depicting variations of "the moment you have so much work to do, you decide to take a nap instead" (replace "take a nap" with whatever you do when you're procrastinating).
While this could certainly be laid out as lazy student attitude, if I look back at my own time studying, I often felt just demotivated by the amount of work that had to be done for various courses to pass.
So I agree with you. Students should have more possibilities take their time and explore subjects they're interested in rather than just passing course after course.
I studied in Austria (Europe) though, so I don't know how much my experience relates to that of a US college student.
I think it's a question of priorities and managing a schedule.
My time (3rd year as a CS undergrad) is split between coursework, 12 h/week as a student programmer, student representative in various university/departmental committees, and sitting on the board in a couple student socities (social and/or political).
I still have a couple hours every other evening to relax by watching YouTube videos or reading webcomics/HN/LWN. If I prioritized reading a book over that, I probably could read a book.
Perhaps sit down 30 minutes before going to sleep and read some? It's doubtful you're doing much right before going to sleep that is productive and it also forces you to lay down and relax before sleeping with the added benefit of accomplishing your goal of reading. I find reading before going to sleep to be the best time as I have nothing else to do and it's a better alternative to say, watching television
As an aside: apologies for the fact that this comment is repeated a couple of times below, I was posting it from train wifi, which kept cutting out, so I was unaware it hadn't posted the first two times. By the time I realised the 2 hour limit for editing/deleting comments had passed.
just my 2c