不過經濟學家Tyler Cowen則對膚淺信息的流行有不同的解釋。在Create Your Own Economy(中譯本《達蜜經濟學》)一書中,他提出廉價必然導致低俗流行,是Alchian-Allen定理的要求。這個定理說如果低品質蘋果和高品質蘋果同時漲價,那麼人們將更樂意買高品質蘋果,反正也要花很多錢還不如吃個好的。在通訊和交通手段不發達的時代,出門看一場戲劇往往要花費很多時間和金錢,所以要看就看個經典的,而且戲劇往往很長。同樣道理在中國發明紙張之前,竹簡是昂貴而費力的信息載體,所以那時候的書本本都是經典。
不過經濟學家Tyler Cowen則對膚淺信息的流行有不同的解釋。在Create Your Own Economy(中譯本《達蜜經濟學》)一書中,他提出廉價必然導致低俗流行,是Alchian-Allen定理的要求。這個定理說如果低品質蘋果和高品質蘋果同時漲價,那麼人們將更樂意買高品質蘋果,反正也要花很多錢還不如吃個好的。在通訊和交通手段不發達的時代,出門看一場戲劇往往要花費很多時間和金錢,所以要看就看個經典的,而且戲劇往往很長。同樣道理在中國發明紙張之前,竹簡是昂貴而費力的信息載體,所以那時候的書本本都是經典。
Even the earliest silent readers recognized the striking change in their consciousness that took place as they immersed themselves in the pages of a book. The medieval bishop Isaac of Syria described how, whenever he read to himself, 'as in a dream, I enter a state when by sense and thoughts are concentrated. Then, when with prolonging of this silence the turmoil of memories is stilled in my heart, ceaseless waves of joy are sent me by inner thoughts, beyond expectation suddenly arising to delight my heart !; Reading a book was a meditative act, but it didn't involve a clearing of the mind. !It involved a filling, or replenishing, of the mind. Readers disengaged their attention from the outward flow of passing stimuli in order to engage it more deeply with an inward flow of words, ideas, and emotions. That was - and is - the essence of the unique mental process of deep reading. It was the technology of the book that made this 'strange anomaly' in our psychological history possible. The brain of the book reader was more than a literate brain. It was a literary brain"
The searchability of online works also represents a variation on older navigational aids such as tables of contents, indexes, and concordances. But here, too, the effects are different. As with links, the ease and ready availability of searching make it much simpler to jump between digital documents than it ever was to jump between printed ones. Our attachment to any one text becomes more tenuous, more provisional. Searches also lead to the fragmentation of online works. A search engine often draws our attention to a particular snippet of text, a few words or sentences that have strong relevance to whatever we're searching for at the moment, while providing little incentive for taking in the work as a whole. We don't see the forest when we search the Web. We don't even see the trees !!! We see twigs and leaves.
Even the earliest silent readers recognized the striking change in their consciousness that took place as they immersed themselves in the pages of a book. The medieval bishop Isaac of Syria described how, whenever he read to himself, 'as in a dream, I enter a state when by sense and thoughts are concentrated. Then, when with prolonging of this silence the turmoil of memories is stilled in my heart, ceaseless waves of joy are sent me by inner thoughts, beyond expectation suddenly arising to delight my heart !; Reading a book was a meditative act, but it didn't involve a clearing of the mind. !It involved a filling, or replenishing, of the mind. Readers disengaged their attention from the outward flow of passing stimuli in order to engage it more deeply with an inward flow of words, ideas, and emotions. That was - and is - the essence of the unique mental process of deep reading. It was the technology of the book that made this 'strange anomaly' in our psychological history possible. The brain of the book reader was more than a literate brain. It was a literary brain"
Hyperlinks also alter our experience of media. Links are in one sense a variation on the textual allusions, citations, and footnotes that have long been common elements of documents. But their effect on us as we read is not at all the same. Links don't just point us to related or supplemental works; they propel us toward them. They encourage us to dip in and out of a series of texts rather than devote sustained attention to any one of them. Hyperlinks are designed to grab our attention.! Their value as navigational tools is inextricable from the distraction they cause.!
Interactivity, hyperlinking, searchability, multimedia—all these qualities of the Net bring attractive benefits. Along with the unprecedented volume of information available online, they're the main reasons that most of us are drawn to using the Net so much. We like to be able to switch between reading and listening and watching without having to get up and turn on another appliance or dig through a pile of magazines or disks. We like to be able to find and be transported instantly to relevant data—without having to sort through lots of extraneous stuff. We like to be in touch with friends, family members, and colleagues. We like to feel connected—and we hate to feel disconnected. The Internet doesn't change our intellectual habits against our will. But change them it does.
A page of online text viewed through a computer screen may seem similar to a page of printed text. But scrolling or clicking through a Web document involves physical actions and sensory stimuli very different from those involved in holding and turning the pages of a book or a magazine. Research has shown that the cognitive act of reading draws not just on our sense of sight but also on our sense of touch. It's tactile as well as visual. "All reading," writes Anne Mangen, a Norwegian literary studies professor, is "multi-sensory." There's "a crucial link" between "the sensory-motor experience of the materiality" of a written work and "the cognitive processing of the text content." The shift from paper to screen doesn't just change the way we navigate a piece of writing. It also influences the degree of attention we devote to it and the depth of our immersion in it.