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Confessions of a stacker: Catherine Robertson on our 2019 research report
Novelist Catherine Robertson responds to our 2019 reading research Reading in a Digital Age.
It seems I am a ‘stacker’ – a person who uses multiple devices for unrelated media tasks. I check the online news (impeachment! Brexit!) while watching Netflix. I switch between social media and email while writing articles like this. Over morning coffee, I scan the newspaper while flicking through the little mail we still receive.
All of the above I’d classify as reading, but the question Read NZ Te Pou Muramura’s research raises is: what is the quality of that reading? Is my ‘continuous partial attention’ to text on multiple devices ruining my ability to consume text in long form? Am I becoming ‘cognitively impatient’ – less able to concentrate for sustained periods and taking in less of what I read? Am I losing the social and personal benefits of reading for pleasure that other forms of reading don’t provide?
If I were to interrogate my behaviour – my habits – I’d say that I’ve always had a voracious need to consume words. As a child, I was equally happy reading comics, encyclopaedias, novels and the Sunset Book of Planning and Landscaping for Hillside Homes. I read TIME magazine and the NZ Listener even when I didn’t understand the articles. I read the breakfast cereal box. If there’s a recognised phobia for running out of reading material, I have it, which is why I find the internet such a boon; it is an endless well of content.
My attention is, always has been, easily diverted. At school, I was a pretty good student but I remember reading under my desk a lot. Tip: don’t choose books that make you laugh out loud. My friends and I filled two Mighty pads with a James Bond spoof that we co-wrote in class. I have a tendency towards hyper-vigilance, and a mind that amasses information. Not necessarily important information, more the kind that comes in handy when playing Trivial Pursuit. I’d say that I also spend too much time hoping that something exciting will happen. Every so often it does (impeachment!), which isn’t a good cure for that kind of magical thinking.
My habits, then, of diverted attention and voracious word consumption, are long established. If the internet had been available during my childhood, my guess is that I would still have read novels, comics and Sunset books along with the material I found online. The Read NZ research suggests that this is true; online reading is ‘displacing not replacing’ other forms. My sense is that reading habits are formed early and they persist – unless we make an effort to change them.
When I was asked to write the contemporary fiction round up for the Listener, I said yes before realising it meant I had to read five books in four weeks. I was still a keen reader but I co-ran a business, had a family and was writing novels in whatever spare time I could grab. If I read one book a fortnight, I was doing well. Now, I had to find a way to get through a book every six days. I had to train myself to read faster but still attentively, so I could do the book justice in my review, and I had to find a lot more reading time.
I did it. For nearly two years I read five books every four weeks, and wrote a hundred words on each. I actually managed to read more than five books – my capacity and capability grew because I created a new habit.
Read NZ’s research found that people find it harder to engage with longer and more challenging content than they did in the past, and are less able to concentrate on longer online content. My feeling is that this is because we fall easily into habits that we accept as the norm. If it feels normal, then we don’t question it. We don’t see that it’s a habit we’ve created – and one we can change.
I’m still very susceptible to diversion. I should put my phone away much more often, especially in the evening. Watching TV is not necessarily better than watching Twitter videos of various Congresswomen grilling Mark Zuckerberg like a kipper, but it does help train the mind to engage in one activity for more than a moment. I’m capable of sustained mental effort when it comes to writing and reading because I’m aware of my flighty brain, and because I’ve patterned in the habit. It’s like creating muscle memory through repetition so that a physical activity becomes more instinctive, and you feel more confident and capable. Repetition is the key here; you have to keep at it or your good habits will slide over time.
But as with physical activity, it’s also important not to overdo it. Read NZ has outlined the significant social and personal benefits of reading for pleasure, and so anything that diminishes that pleasure reduces those benefits. Reading should not be a chore. Sadly, for many New Zealanders it is. They have been unable to pattern in a habit of reading for enjoyment.
What can we do about that? Perhaps a good first step is to help people understand what their reading habits are, and show how those habits can be adapted so that they get the most benefit. We can point out that what people read seems not as important as how they read – skimming has its place, but it’s a useful skill to be able to take in and digest longer, more complex information. The research showed that quite a high number of people read online and non-online content ‘for no real reason’. Let’s teach people how to read with purpose, whether that’s education or pleasure (which are often the same, of course).
We reinforce habits from an early age for health and hygiene – “wash your hands, brush your teeth” – and social norms – “say thank you”. What’s stopping us from making a concerted, collaborative effort to help every New Zealander form a lifelong habit of reading for pleasure?
