n.
Internet users who read widely, but without depth.
Example Citations:
The changing nature of work, study and leisure is rewiring the human brain in such a way that deep reading the concentrated pursuit of linear stories and thought — is being trained out of us.
A University Of California (San Diego) study found that the amount of information the average American processed in 2008 was triple what it was in 1960. This has turned many into pancake people — spread wide and thin.
—Dr. Marc Dussault, " Floatation Tank Helps Improve Grades: http://thefloatcenter.blogspot.com/2011/04/floatation-tank-helps-improve-grades.html," FLOAT Press Blog, April 5, 2011
The more different ways technology gives people to multi-task, the more chances people have to succumb to an illusion of attention...
Pancake people spread wide and thin.
—Thomas Crampton, "Debate Research: The Internet is Making Us Stupid," Thomas Crampton, November 10, 2010
Earliest Citation:
I think we're producing a race of people who are paper-thin — almost pancake people — who cover a lot of territory. Like the Internet. And our psyches cover a lot of territory, but to me it's sort of pancake-thin.
—Richard Foreman, quoted in Nick Fracaro, " Richard Foreman Interview: http://ratconference.com/foreman/Rat%20Sass%20Richard%20Foreman%20Interview.htm," Rat Sass, February 7, 2003
Notes:
Related Words:
Categories:
Aunt Jemima, meet Mrs. Butterworth.
New words. 2013.