AIBU to think the internet has broken my reading ability?

[ReluctantlyRedundant101]

I have realised that I skim read most things and retain very little information and I think it comes from reading off screens and not actively engaging with what I'm reading iyswim
I've tried going back to paper which has helped a bit but I would love to be able to remember what I've read half an hour after reading!

Agree, am trying a detox but it's the balance, what is the right balance?
There are books I read in my 20s that were quite deep, couldn't imagine reading them now!

I know what you mean. I waste far too much time on the internet. It used to be fresh and funny and a good way of connecting with people but now it's the same old shite, arguments and polarisation. I've decided I'm going to get back into books and try watching a film (at home) without looking at my phone every bloody 5 minutes.

Yep, my patience and attention span are virtually nothing now (I think there are other factors too, but I recognise the on-demand, summary nature of social media and other Internet as partly to blame).

It hasn’t affected my reading but I’m terrible at watching T.V. now. I struggle not to browse at the same time and if I do, I never lose myself in the film/match/programme as I used to. I too am trying to stop this. If we are bad, what chance have the generations growing up with it got?!

Yes, I get this too.

I was just thinking this recently! I used to always have two or three books on the go, reading whenever I could, in bed and so on. Books all over the house. Now, since heavy internet usage over the years, I can barely read a page of a book, I seem to have zero attention span for reading, and just get drawn back to the screen of my iPad. It's worrying.

Hi there. YANBU. I feel like that. I don't just blame the internet, I blame smartphones too. When I read on the net, I have several tabs open at once and flit back and forth. Sometimes when I am reading a novel, I have to stop myself reading about it online at the same time!
When I was a kid, I was a huge bookworm and could read for several hours. We had the internet but using it was more like an event; waiting for my turn to use the desktop, the dial-up! Now it's so easy to constantly be on the internet!

Light Drizzle I find it hard to concentrate on a programme too without looking at my damn phone!

I've become like this too , with piles of recently bought but unread books at my bedside.
The other day I was thinking about one of my teachers who when setting homework used to say "Read, learn and inwardly digest". I don't think I do much "inwardly digesting" these days.
I find myself reading stuff on the internet, being very interested at the time, but almost intentionally not bothering to remember too much about what I've read as I know I can just google it again if I forget the details.
It's not good!

Agreed. I recognise that my attention span has been damaged by my phone. It worries me, tbh. I didn't grow up with tech (in my 40s) so it is staggering how damaged I am in , I guess, 8 years or so of having a smartphone.

I'm also in my 40s stargirl so didn't grow up with tech
If you stop reading things off screens (probably impossible!) Do you think it'll come back?

I'm just the opposite! I'm online a lot (mostly during bus journeys) but i lose myself down rabbit holes and end up buying books to read about things i find interesting.

I'm early-40s and reached a point where if something doesn't grab me, then i'll turn it off/ put it down. There was a time i'd struggle to the end of a book just because it is a book and no book should go unfinished, but now i think '50 pages in and it hasn't got me by the short and curlies? Off with your head!'. Ditto a tv series (just dumped Mozart in the Jungle - cute show, but meh) or a film. My tolerance for shit is much lower than when in my 20s.

I don't bring my phone upstairs, i sleep a lot better. I do sudokus - much easier to put down and turn your light off.

When I read on the net, I have several tabs open at once and flit back and forth. Sometimes when I am reading a novel, I have to stop myself reading about it online at the same time!

Yes! If I am watching a film I switch tabs to read about the film and the actors in it and then realise I have, quite literally, lost the plot. I too used to have opened novels lying around in every room. I have been thinking the same thing as OP recently.

I waste far too much time on the internet. It used to be fresh and funny and a good way of connecting with people but now it's the same old shite, arguments and polarisation.

This too. It was fun at first and now I just think - this is going nowhere, just a lot of people shouting.

For me it's the actual physical stimulation that I need now. I get pulled away from my book by the desire to tap at the screen. If I'm on the phone, stressed, listening to my DM or even watching tv, I have to play a candy crush type game to soothe myself. It's like doodling.

I think since having kids, I’m always in a constant state of alert to listen out for crying. This has really affected my concentration levels so I find it hard to focus on a decent book.
I’ve got no problems reading trashy books and I’ve downloaded enough of them to keep me occupied during night feeds and sleepless nights. They don’t require much focus.
I also find that I get stressed and emotional quite easily watching intense films so I start distracting myself with my phone.
I am trying to read more now and it’s getting better. The more I do, the easier it gets.
I just need to use my phone less.

I don't know. It's like a compulsion to check my phone. A twitch. I can, and do, ignore it whilst telling myself to get a bloody grip. But...it is there. The twitch in the middle of a book.

The smartphones came out around the time I was doing nightfeeds (and my babies were both in it for the longhaul). The tiredness of pregnancy shot my attention span anyway. I remember being in the last few weeks of my first pregnancy and skipping over a double page article of a magazine as it was just too much!

The exhaustion of early motherhood is long passed, but that bit of your brain on permanent alert doesn't seem to switch off.

I did used to devour books in front of the TV if I had no great interest. There's not much I have a great interest in on TV these days and I do find it hard to break the habit of twiddling away on a phone in the background, particularly as it stops me from dozing off on the sofa. An alternative craft does work if I bother to think about it.

I do read books again, but definitely not as rampantly as I did pre-DCs or smart phone.

Maybe it's a case of use it or lose it?

In a similar vein, I've noticed my spelling getting worse since the advent of autocorrect.