The Tangled Web We Wove

" Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive "
- Sir Walter Scott, Marmion

It is an accepted fact that our attention spans have reduced over the years, owing to a faster pace of life, stress and so forth. This is evident in many aspects of our day-to-day existence, but here is a small example:

" There lies died and been buried in this city, during the current week, at an advanced age, a man who is so little known, even by name, to the generation now in the vigor of life that only one newspaper contained an obituary account of him, and this was but of three or four lines. Yet forty years ago the appearance of a new book by Herman Melville was esteemed a literary event, not only throughout his own country, but so far as the English-speaking race extended."

The New York Times Obituary for Hermann Melville, October 2, 1891 - 87 words in 2 sentences

" A surprising change has overtaken the welfare rolls in New York City and the nation. In more than a third of welfare households, the only recipients of benefits are children. "

The New York Times, August 14, 2002 - 30 words in 2 sentences

The question is: Is the web accentuating this change?

[to be continued when I have more coherent arguments.]

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	" Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive " - Sir Walter Scott, Marmion It is an accepted fact that our attention spans have reduced over the years, owing to a faster pace of life, stress and so forth. This is evident in many aspects of our day-to-day existence, but here is a small example: " There lies died and been buried in this city, during the current week, at an advanced age, a man who is so little known, even by name, to the generation now in the vigor of life that only one newspaper contained an obituary account of him, and this was but of three or four lines. Yet forty years ago the appearance of a new book by Herman Melville was esteemed a literary event, not only throughout his own country, but so far as the English-speaking race extended." The New York Times Obituary for Hermann Melville, October 2, 1891 - 87 words in 2 sentences " A surprising change has overtaken the welfare rolls in New York City and the nation. In more than a third of welfare households, the only recipients of benefits are children. " The New York Times, August 14, 2002 - 30 words in 2 sentences The question is: Is the web accentuating this change? [to be continued when I have more coherent arguments.]