[DiapDealer]

I think that society in general has evolved in a more ADD direction--moving quickly from one bright shiny thing to the next. But I'm not willing to blame it on online reading (alone anyway). I imagine it to be more more media- and culturally-based in general: sound bites, video montages, action sequences, 23/42 minute episodes, hectic schedules, and phones with the entire world at our fingertips.

We don't live in a world that's very conducive to slowly savoring anything. Some people can ignore all that--others find themselves (unsurprisingly) unable to focus as well as they used to for any length of time.

I don't say this to imply that the world is going to hell in a handbasket or anything; only that the world is changing. But just because our lives are being thrown at us at the speed of light doesn't mean we have to consume it at that speed. You can still slow down and smell the prose if it's important for you to do so.