I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the time I spend reading things on the Internet. It’s a bit ironic to be writing this in a blog, but I’m wrestling with the “dispersion” of my thoughts as I read so many short articles. Obtaining information via blogs and Internet articles is not the same as getting it from books (though it does bear a certain resemblance to newspaper reading).

Years ago, my watch was stolen during a home invasion. I used that as a time to try and lessen my time addiction; I waited more than a year before I bought another watch. Week before last, my laptop was stolen (OK, Herald of Truth’s laptop). One thing I lost were all of my RSS subscriptions, all the feeds to articles, blogs, etc. that I read regularly. I had over 200 subscriptions.

I’m going to wait a while before replacing them. I’ll try and still read some blogs, and I invite you to feel free to point out to me good things that I might be missing. But for a time, I’m going to slow down my Internet reading (fully recognizing the irony of doing so while continuing to write).

This may be through the end of the year. It may be through the end of tomorrow. We’ll see.

But I want to get back to the deeper question: does reading widely on the Internet keep us from focusing on deeper thoughts? Or does it help us to be well rounded? I’d very much appreciate your input.