Consuming text. There's much consumption going on around here.
"Over the last few years I've had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn't going—so far as I can tell—but it's changing. I'm not thinking the way I used to think. I feel it most strongly when I'm reading. I used to find it easy to immerse myself in a book or a lengthy article. My mind would get caught up in the twists of the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I'd spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That's rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration starts to drift after a page or two. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel like I'm always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."
— From THE SHALLOWS: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
by Nicholas Carr
The argument is enduring on Facebook.
"I once heard someone say that listening to audio isn't really reading, and to those judgmental folks, all I can say is, audio saved my life!
I swear, these last few years, life was so hectic that there was no way I had time to physically sit down and read. I actually got a little depressed not having a book in my hand and started questioning my life choices.
Then, I found audio, which I swore I would never do, because nothing compares to the intimacy of paper on skin feel. But honestly, without audiobooks, I would be so lost.
Whether driving in the car, cleaning the house, or cooking, audio makes me feel like I'm not missing out anymore. And today, with how sad our world is becoming, I NEED books, in any form possible, to keep the negative out."
Someone commented: "Brain research has shown that the same areas of the brain are activated when reading a text or listening to it"
So, I used AI Google to find this 'brain research'.
There are countless individuals that will eschew listening to a book — the arguments about feeling a book in your hand, nothing more relaxing, and the preconceived notions that retention is better when consumed visually. The above search returned an insinuation that there is indeed research. So I did what anyone from this day and age that's into AI would do: I sent all the services into 'Deep Research' mode. But first, Google's AI search was queried to provide a well-rounded nudge for the research.
One of the most prominent papers dug up is:
Listening Ears or Reading Eyes: A Meta-Analysis of Reading and Listening Comprehension Comparisons
Virginia Clinton-Lisell — University of North Dakota
Gemini's report looked good on the surface, with lots of source material. Digging deeper, it is evident one cannot take it at face value, and the sources should be vetted to some extent. Still, it is a really good way to find the sources.
Gemini's Version
Claude's Version
Same brain, different bottlenecks: how modality shapes reading comprehension
Bottom line? It's complicated. Of course it is, just like everything else that human beings feel a need to fight about.
Disclaimer: The opening passage is quoted from Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. The Facebook comment is reproduced from a public discussion thread; it is the author's own. The Clinton-Lisell meta-analysis is cited from her published academic work. The two linked Deep Research write-ups were generated by Gemini and Claude (an AI assistant by Anthropic) at the author's direction; they should be vetted before being treated as authoritative. Claude also helped with the visual formatting of this post. All commentary and conclusions are the author's own.
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