Re:Reading on smartphone affects sigh generation, brain acti...
by majormajor on Wednesday February 02, 2022 @09:00PM
(#30187443)
This is the explanation I believe.
It would be easy to say "today's movies aren't as interesting as the ones of 20 years ago" but that would be ignoring that I changed in those years - namely, I've seen a lot more movies and read a lot more books and watched a lot more TV.
It would be unsurprising for someone to say "not everything I liked at first still holds up today."
But I apply the same reasoning against my forward-looking watching/reading: "I've seen so much more now that fewer things impress me at first, as I have so much more to compare with."
So a book that's only mildly capturing my attention? I can speed up my reading, skim a bit more over the uninteresting parts. A movie? So much harder!
It would be easy to say "today's movies aren't as interesting as the ones of 20 years ago" but that would be ignoring that I changed in those years - namely, I've seen a lot more movies and read a lot more books and watched a lot more TV.
It would be unsurprising for someone to say "not everything I liked at first still holds up today."
But I apply the same reasoning against my forward-looking watching/reading: "I've seen so much more now that fewer things impress me at first, as I have so much more to compare with."
So a book that's only mildly capturing my attention? I can speed up my reading, skim a bit more over the uninteresting parts. A movie? So much harder!