Once I was a scuba driver in the sea of words, now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.

Nicholas Carr

Interesting essay by Peggy Noonan on the impact of the internet on politics and journalism. Or maybe the lack of ‘journalism’ i the classic sense.  I have noticed that reporters don’t investigate but raather repeat the press releases.

This year I am seeing something, especially among the young of politics and journalism. They have received most of what they know about political history through screens. They are college graduates, they’re in their 20s or 30s, they’re bright and ambitious, but they have seen the movie and not read the book. They’ve heard the sound bite but not read the speech. Their understanding of history, even recent history, is superficial. They grew up in the internet age and have filled their brainspace with information that came in the form of pictures and sounds. They learned through sensation, not through books, which demand something deeper from your brain. Reading forces you to imagine, question, ponder, reflect. It provides a deeper understanding of political figures and events.

Watching a movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis shows you a drama. Reading about it shows you a dilemma. The book makes you imagine the color, sound, tone and tension, the logic of events: It makes your brain do work. A movie is received passively: You sit back, see, hear. Books demand and reward. When you read them your knowledge base deepens and expands. In time that depth comes to inform your work, sometimes in ways of which you’re not fully conscious.

http://www.peggynoonan.com/the-politics-of-the-shallows/

If you can’t read deeply you will not be able to think deeply. If you can’t think deeply you will not be able to lead well.

Peggy Noonan