11–20 of 63 posts
Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…
Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…
Here is a source: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-dec... It seems like OP is accurate in their assessment, it's surprising to see how many people read ZERO books in the preceding year.
Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…
Personally, I grew up reading any sort of book and then switched to nonfiction and magazine articles. My habits haven't changed considerably with the internet. I may be an outlier but I don't enjoy video in general and don't watch it on TV or online.
My experience with recent children is that they read books, watch video on TV and online, play physically and with toys, and also play video games. That's almost exactly what my life was like growing up in the '80s.
Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…
Here is a source: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-dec... It seems like OP is accurate in their assessment, it's surprising to see how many people read ZERO books in the preceding year.
But I have the internet and I can access rich content at my fingertips on topics I care to educate myself on in a way that wasn't possible when I was a child. I use this to do things like say to my 32 year old son "I'm having X health issue. I recall reading something about (y health topic). Please see if x and y are related and if there is something I can do about it."
An hour later, I have an email full of supporting links showing me that research shows there is a connection, these are the nutrients related to that problem and here is a list of foods with those nutrients. This has resulted at times in answer like "The answer to your problem is you need to eat a Reese's Cup." I eat a Reese's Cup and my agonizing, incapacitating pain drops dramatically to bearable levels.
The old way isn't necessarily superior. I used to read a lot of books when my mother would take my older sister and I to the library so my sister could spend hours doing research for her high school papers. I would lay on the floor in the children's room and read Dr. Seuss or whatever.
I can now access more high quality information on the internet via my cheap smart phone than probably any library has ever physically contained. And I spend large parts of my time reading on the internet and then I write to collate the information and keep track of the parts that matter to me.
I am always baffled by people acting like spending all day on the internet means pissing your time away shit posting on Facebook or Twitter and not doing anything at all intellectually valuable. I'm doubly baffled when I see such sentiments expressed on Hacker News, where a bunch of smart people hang out to discuss mostly written articles (audio and video tend to do poorly here) and many people here read the comment first because of the calibre of thought the audience provides.
Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here is a source: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-dec... It seems like OP is accurate in their assessment, it's surprising to see how many people read ZERO books in the preceding year.
I've probably read zero books in the preceding year. But I have the internet and I can access rich content at my fingertips on topics I care to educate myself on in a way that wasn't possible when I was a child. I use this to do things like say to my 32 year old son "I'm having X health issue. I recall reading something about (y health topic). Please see if x and y are related and if there is something I can do about…
I agree with you there's all sorts of useful and interesting internet content that's not reading crap on facebook. There's even literary discourse on the internet!
But what about books? Reading actual books is different.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've probably read zero books in the preceding year. But I have the internet and I can access rich content at my fingertips on topics I care to educate myself on in a way that wasn't possible when I was a child. I use this to do things like say to my 32 year old son "I'm having X health issue. I recall reading something about (y health topic). Please see if x and y are related and if there is something I can do about…
What about reading Dr. Seuss (or similar books), where the goal is not to access rich content or solve a problem? Where there is no goal other than to enjoy a book? I agree with you there's all sorts of useful and interesting internet content that's not reading crap on facebook. There's even literary discourse on the internet! But what about books? Reading actual books is different.
But not reading books doesn't mean you don't have an intellectual life and spending your entire day futzing around on the internet does not mean your brain is clearly and unarguably going to rot.
That's all I'm trying to say.
Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…
Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…
“The new thing is bad, people should do more of the old thing”. If people couldn’t watch Netflix they certainly wouldn’t be using that time to think about important issues. The world has not moved away from a reading culture, it never had one.
I'm not sure if it's for better or for worse but this is vastly different than anything humans have dealt with for all of history.
Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…
> people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in South America committed by the U.S. and in the next instant what Kylie Jenner wore to the MET gala Doesn't this completely invalidate your argument? If it's that much easier for folks to read an article about war crimes in South America committed by the US and the next about Kylie Jenner at a gala, how is tha…