I saw an article from the New York Times that sounded interesting. It is titled "Can a Book Ever Change a Reader's Life for the Worse?" In one sense, the question is trivial. Of course, a book might convince me that rot is good to eat or that my friend is my enemy or something else. If you think a book can create good change or an opening for good change, it more or less follows that it might create change which turns out to negative.
But what my point here relates instead to what I actually see when I get to the web page that interested me. I saw this:
I have circled things that pop up on this page that can take my mind and attention away from what I went there for. Of course, most of the links to do with buying things or joining things. But even something that leads me to further information about possible negative effects of reading can be a distraction from what this author has to say in this article.
As an experienced reader, I more or less automatically filter out what I am not after. But my first grade greatgranddaughter might not be as able to do that. She isn't likely to use the family iPad to get into the New York Times but it can be confusing for anyone.
By the way, the markup was done in the iPad app called "Skitch". I have tried to circle the links that will take me away from my target page.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
