I still read a lot and like real printed books but I think reading is in decline as you say. I usually turn off screens and read before bed and it helps me sleep. It's a little shocking to me that it' seems to be in decline. I write down thoughts and analyze and ponder them and memorize lyrics and poems. I find it odd that others don't think that way.
It's easier I suppose to watch videos but it's lazier and doesn't develop the word and language skills and it seems fleeting and manipulative these days. Reading can develop the brain differently than watching a screen and I would say it's still very necessary.
I don't really think that it is as much decline as it is some form of reasoned nostalgia.
Outside of the forced years of reading as part of schooling, very few people ever did that much reading on their own. Of those who did, very little was sustained reading. Mostly short entertainment stuff, news headlines, and looking things up in reference materials.
I would argue that there is more reading being done today as a whole than there ever has in any time in the past.
I'm not happy if I don't have at least one good book I'm reading. I have a hard time understanding that people don't enjoy it or have the curiosity for a good story, or to research a topic to really understand it. This article gives me insight as the how people have become so one sided in their thinking, nuance is becoming rare.
But this moment has a distinguishing feature: reading is no longer structurally necessary for participation in public life. You can be politically engaged, socially connected, and economically functional without ever reading a long text. That means reading now survives only if people choose to do it. And in a world as complex and fragile as the one we live in, it’s a choice few are making.
…
In the last quarter of the 20th century, the Depression Era & Silent generations still influenced pop culture.
Today, the older generations, Boomers & my Gen X, are largely disconnected from Real Things like
1) walking 😂
2) cooking from scratch,
3) milking a cow, raising veggies, etc.,
4) fixing a car, fixing the roof, etc.,
5) raising children; staying married 😂👍
6) etc. 😂
No, the internet did not make us stupider.
Instead, the internet reveals our stupidity 😂 our cultural degeneracy 😂
… But as for “readers” like Bill Gates & Oprah & the rest of our sociopathic Ruling Class, umm 🤔, that’s not the kinds of readers we need 😂
Thanks for being here, Collapse Life 👍🙂.
But I disagree with the premise & the conclusion.
We’re dumb because we’re poor, and we were already dumb **before** the internet.
And we’re poor because it takes both Mom & Dad working f/t outside the home just to <<survive>>, yet we’re poorer than my Depression Era grandparents were on a single high school educated paycheck, lots of kids going to parochial school. (How the hell did they accomplish that?)
Anyway, who has time to read when they’re in <<survival mode>> 24/7/365?
Thought for the Day: We get the world we deserve, and apparently what we deserve is a world where most adults either don't read at all, or read only minimally.
Thought for Tomorrow: I'm always impressed with the thought-provoking essays presented at Collapse Life, and I'm very grateful for this content provided on that substack by writer Zahra Sethna. - BG
I have a library of at least 1000 books. I will pass them on to the next generation.
Concerns about reading and writing have been a around since ancient Greece.
https://schrodingerschicken.substack.com/p/theyre-bounty-soft?r=6hnh8x
I still read a lot and like real printed books but I think reading is in decline as you say. I usually turn off screens and read before bed and it helps me sleep. It's a little shocking to me that it' seems to be in decline. I write down thoughts and analyze and ponder them and memorize lyrics and poems. I find it odd that others don't think that way.
It's easier I suppose to watch videos but it's lazier and doesn't develop the word and language skills and it seems fleeting and manipulative these days. Reading can develop the brain differently than watching a screen and I would say it's still very necessary.
Perfect I taught High school English college school administration and doctoral studies. Read read read no longer
I don't really think that it is as much decline as it is some form of reasoned nostalgia.
Outside of the forced years of reading as part of schooling, very few people ever did that much reading on their own. Of those who did, very little was sustained reading. Mostly short entertainment stuff, news headlines, and looking things up in reference materials.
I would argue that there is more reading being done today as a whole than there ever has in any time in the past.
I'm not happy if I don't have at least one good book I'm reading. I have a hard time understanding that people don't enjoy it or have the curiosity for a good story, or to research a topic to really understand it. This article gives me insight as the how people have become so one sided in their thinking, nuance is becoming rare.
But this moment has a distinguishing feature: reading is no longer structurally necessary for participation in public life. You can be politically engaged, socially connected, and economically functional without ever reading a long text. That means reading now survives only if people choose to do it. And in a world as complex and fragile as the one we live in, it’s a choice few are making.
…
In the last quarter of the 20th century, the Depression Era & Silent generations still influenced pop culture.
Today, the older generations, Boomers & my Gen X, are largely disconnected from Real Things like
1) walking 😂
2) cooking from scratch,
3) milking a cow, raising veggies, etc.,
4) fixing a car, fixing the roof, etc.,
5) raising children; staying married 😂👍
6) etc. 😂
No, the internet did not make us stupider.
Instead, the internet reveals our stupidity 😂 our cultural degeneracy 😂
… But as for “readers” like Bill Gates & Oprah & the rest of our sociopathic Ruling Class, umm 🤔, that’s not the kinds of readers we need 😂
Thanks for being here, Collapse Life 👍🙂.
But I disagree with the premise & the conclusion.
We’re dumb because we’re poor, and we were already dumb **before** the internet.
And we’re poor because it takes both Mom & Dad working f/t outside the home just to <<survive>>, yet we’re poorer than my Depression Era grandparents were on a single high school educated paycheck, lots of kids going to parochial school. (How the hell did they accomplish that?)
Anyway, who has time to read when they’re in <<survival mode>> 24/7/365?
Thought for the Day: We get the world we deserve, and apparently what we deserve is a world where most adults either don't read at all, or read only minimally.
Thought for Tomorrow: I'm always impressed with the thought-provoking essays presented at Collapse Life, and I'm very grateful for this content provided on that substack by writer Zahra Sethna. - BG