It's interesting that ads were never mentioned. The most skilled internet readers (1) never see ads that don't actually cover up what they are trying to read, and (2) are very likely simply to abandon a page where an ad does cover up what they are trying to read. Another more subtle attribute of skilled internet readers is that (3) they are pretty good at finding hitting the "printer friendly" or "view all on one page" button.

It seems to me that ads and related nonsense (as, for example, the now near-universal tendency to break articles up so that more ads get loaded) may in fact be the reason why print is more relaxing than online reading.

I'm not saying that any of this is necessarily bad, but I think it is true.

The most skilled internet readers use the Ad Block Plus plugin for Firefox and therefore never even have the ads taking up their screenspace at all.

Hi All!

I'm 23 ie post the generationX stigma. And nothing Ts me off more than pop up adds. Even when they do block what I'm reading, I NEVER read them- so i don't know what to tell advertisers accept for stop sending popup it only makes us hate you and ur product. Now they've even created little sneaky ways to avoid using the word "close" ugh!

I dunno what it is really...? Maybe there's so much stuff on the internet you have to skim to take in such a large amount of info. As for view all on 1page.. i try to avoid. Something about turning pages, weather real ones or e-ones, makes me feel like i'm getting somewhere.

If an article is not immedately interesting I will not read. If the body isn't as interesting as the intro I will stop reading. But if i have 2 read it or want to read it but don't have the time, I click edit, find, and type in the keyword i'm looking for and presto! I don't even have skim ;)