The web has stolen my creativity. What I need is the time and space to think..

Mark Zukerberg may have discovered the book but Facebook - and the rest of the web - is the enemy of deep thought

Mark Zukerberg's influence cannot be overestimated. The Facebook CEO can set the bellwether for popular thought'. 

I have an admission. A declaration, maybe. I've had to step off the world for a few weeks. It's all spinning too fast, and there's no place to rest, no island, no solace, nowhere to spare a few hours passed out between a battle to fall asleep and being woken again long before dawn by a tornado child

Anyone who has spent a long time working on a screen and online  - and I am long past my Gladwellian 10,000 hours of artisan achivement  - will know the feeling. It's a creeping, anxious restlessness, created by and for the fifth gear, hyper-consumerism of the internet. It's what the mechanisms of what hundreds of thousands of shares, likes, flicks, clicks, skims, scrolls and swipes do to our minds

It's a mile wide and an inch deep, as Ev Williams pointedly cited recently. Sharing implies we have read and recommend what we're sharing and on Facebook that's often not true, especially with journalism. The endliess newsfeed doesn't want you to read that news story - it wants you to throw yourself into the frantic social currency of scrolling, of liking and of more sharing. It isn't designed to offer the optimum environment for you to lose yourself a thorough, well-researched piece about the health industry in the developing world, say, that invites you to comment and question the writers and experts who contributed. If an optimum reading experience were the priority, how different would Facebook feel?

Curiously, it would probably feel like a book. An in-depth, single subject resource produced on a technology designed for one thing - to read, and be absorbed in it, its ideas, its characters, its opinions, and in the writer's imagination. Mark Zuckerberg has discovered "the book" - he finds them "intellectually stimulating" and has just launched a book club. He will work through 26 titles this year, starting with Moises Naim's The End of Power - now hastily restocked on Amazon after selling out in the first few hours. How many of its 90,000 members will read every book, pore over every thought and observation? And how many will just "share",as an endorsement of the idea, and then move on? Zucherberg has asked for the former, yet that's not what his own site encourages.

Zuckerberg's influence can't be overestimated. he can recommend one title to the 30 million people who follow him. He can make an author overnight, and with a year of sanitised and corporately curated selections he can set the bellwether for popular thought  - yet more homogeneity in a global culture increasingly defined by the internet

For anyone who wants to write a book, however, the internet is probably the greatest enemy to attendtion and concentrated thought, both for the writer and potential readers. It works in partnership with the mind - trained during years of internet use - not be able to concentrate on any one thing for more than 90 seconds.

The cost of this butterfly attention span is creativity. There is no space and time among the constant digestion of competing stories, picture, videos, messages and emails. For every instructional video and the remarkable luxury of real-time global instant messaging, there is, on a bad day, a thousand punchlines, a thousnad cannibal comment threads, an endless river of pouting, over made-up selfies all demaning your attention and once they have it, they send it off elsewhere

Drowning out noise will only get better when the software companies realise meaningful engagement requires time and curation and when the software itself can truly trailor content to our needs; current attempts are too crude. We also have to develop a new self-awareness so that we know when we're being sucked in, when we're wasting time, when we're being spun an algorithmic line. What's lost, the opportunity cost for us personally, is harder to define, but crucial. Some of the better writing on new year resolutions advised what to cut out rather than over ambitious goals to aim for

Because what I feel I lose in all this noise is creativity and original thought - random, unpredictable, exciting bursts of ideas that bubble up when you least expect them. And if we are short of creative ideas, observations and thoughts, then we are failing ourselves, recycling the flotsam and jetsam of the internet when we should be crafting ships of thought and insight that can help us navigate this formidable, overwhelming yet disappointing thing we have created

can help use navigate this formidable, overwhelming yet disappointing thing we have created

should be crafting ships of thought and insight

are failing ourselves, recycling the flotsam adn jetsam of the internet

are short of creative ideas, observations and thoughts

that bubble up when you least expect them

what I feel I lose in all this noise is creativity and original thought - random, unpredictable, exciting bursts of ideas

rather than over ambitious goals to aim for

some of the better writing on new year resolutions advised what to cut out

the opportunity cost for us personally is harder to define but crucial

are being spun an algorithmic line

are wasting time

being sucked in

have to develop a new self-awareness so that we know when we're being sucked in

current attempts are too crude

can truly trailor content to our needs

requires time and curation

Drowning out noise will only get better when the software companies realise meaningful engagement

once they have it, they send it off elsewhere

over made-up selfies all demanding your attention

an endless river of pouting

a thousand punchlines, a thousand cannibal comment threads

the remarkable luxury of real-time global instant messaging

every instructional video

is no space and time among the constant digestion of competing stories

the cost of this butterfly attention span is creativity

trained during years of internet use

works in partnership with the mind

potential readers

is probably the greatest enemy to attendtion and concentrated thought

more homogeneity in  a global culture increasingly defined by the internet

can set the bellwether for popular thought

with a year of sanitised and corporately curated selections

can make an author overnight

can recommend one title to the 30 million people

can't be overestimated

is not what his own site encourages

has asked for the former

as an endorsement of the idea

pore over every thought and observation

how many of its 90,000 members will read every book

int the first few hours

hastily restocked on Amazon after selling out in the first few hours

starting with Moises Naim' s The End of Power

will work through 26 titles this year

has just launced a book club

intellectually stimulating

has discovered the book

be absorbed in it

to read, and be absorbed in it, its ideas, its characters, its opinions, and in the writer's imagination

produced on a technology designed for one thing

an in-depth, single subject resource

feel like a book

How different would Facebook feel?

were the priority

an optimum reading experience

invites you to comment and question the writers and experts who contributed

well-researched piece about the health industry in the developing world

isn't designed to offer the optimum environment for you to lose yourself a thorough

wants you to throw yourself into the frantic social currency of scrolling

that's often not true especially with journalism

recommend what we're sharing

pointedly cited recently

a mile wide and an inch deep

what the muchanisms of what hundreds of thousands of shares, likes, flicks, clicks, skims, scrolls and swipes do to our minds

hyper-consumerism of the internet

for the fifth gear

it's a creeping anxious, restlessness

I am long past my Gladwellian 10m000 hours of artisan achivement

has spent a long time working on a screen

10,000 hours of artisan achivement

being woken

passed out between a battle to fall asleep and being woken again long before dawn by a tornado child

no place to restm no solace nowhere to spare a few hours

is all spinning too fast

have had to step off the world for a weeks

have and admission

can set the bellwether for popular thought

cannot be overestimated