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Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

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Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#51

Post by wahern »

cat199 wrote: post #38
save_ferris wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it never had one. How can you say that? Literacy was once a very strong proxy to wealth, and still retains a connection today. Books have been fundamental to many aspects of human history. If Russia never had a culture of reading, then how does the Communist Manifesto drive an entire society, millions of people, to overthrow its familial leaders before the era of television?

> If Russia never had a culture of reading, then how does the Communist Manifesto drive an entire society, millions of people, to overthrow its familial leaders before the era of television? not disagreeing with your premise, but - assuming this to be accurate (leaving out alot of factors), nothing says small number of people couldn't read it and then go around verbally agitating everyone else. that said literacy was…

Literacy in Russia was low during the Russian Revolution. The Russian Empire was one of the last to abolish serfdom in Europe, and the parts where serfdom was abolished earliest, industrialization the greatest, and literacy the highest (e.g. Poland) were parts that had separated by the time of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Also, the monarchy was toppled by an ideologically diverse group. The Bolsheviks would have to fight a civil war before they could institute the Soviet Union. It's really not plausible that any significant number of Russians were spurred into action by reading the Communist Manifesto. Now, undoubtedly some elite group of radicals did just that, but that doesn't require widespread literacy, let alone widespread consumption of sophisticated literature.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#52

Post by hhsuey »

code_duck wrote: post #13
ridhwaan wrote: post #3

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…

How is this different than the past two or three generations and television? 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, pl…

Agreed. And the same with the radio generation. Honestly, wouldn't be surprised if most people didn't read in USA and elsewhere through most of human history.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#53

Post by hhsuey »

ridhwaan wrote: post #3

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…

Reading doesn't necessarily mean more thinking than it does with other mediums. Lots of text lacks substance and depth and is used as entertainment. Much of the previous generations were reading quick bites from news and magazines.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#54

Post by wwweston »

dean177 wrote: post #8
ridhwaan wrote: post #3

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.

Consider that at the start of the 20th century, there was no other mass media besides print. Western literacy rates were poking into the 90% range (with some demographic variation) by sometime around the dawn of America.

There's always been more to culture than print (as with any media), of course, and reading culture has never meant universal critical engagement with deeply thoughtful texts. But the place of print between the enlightenment and the rise of broadcast & networked media was huge -- it soaked up the space occupied by all media now.

Maybe the new things aren't worse than the old thing, maybe they are. But any picture that doesn't reckon with the fact that things are in fact different now isn't going to be a very accurate one.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#55

Post by code_duck »

hhsuey wrote: post #52
code_duck wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different than the past two or three generations and television? 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, pl…

Agreed. And the same with the radio generation. Honestly, wouldn't be surprised if most people didn't read in USA and elsewhere through most of human history.

Well, that's a great point. For almost all of human history prior to the 20th century, the vast majority of people never even learned to read.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#56

Post by ridhwaan »

hckr_news wrote: post #22
quotz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to mention Paul Graham's essay Acceleration of Addictiveness http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html

Slight tangent but somewhat related. The amount of damage mobile phones and the tech industry have done on the human mind has been extremely understated. These hits of dopamine aren’t free. There’s a massive cost. Loss of privacy aside, the next battle has to be addressing the addiction of these platforms/devices and what it means for humans going forward.

This was the underlying implication of my post. Reading a book is in no way similar to the way we consume media/information today.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#57

Post by billfruit »

the_af wrote: post #16
DoreenMichele wrote: post #14

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.

Yes, and also most of the info on internet is rather knew, while books have been existing for thousands of years, and in recent times much of these has become easily accessible to be anyone.

They are a great source of ideas, and also lets one connect to the vast and long history of human progress.

While I don't say that reading books is superior to any other activity, I do think it is usually a rather beneficial thing to do, and ofcourse many people find it a pleasure in itself, irrespective of any benefits.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#58

Post by dang »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #46
dang wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some parts of the world certainly did. Read Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death". He talks about how Midwestern farmboys would read while they ploughed fields, with one hand holding reins and the other holding an open book.

They were for the most part not reading fine literature, they were reading low quality trash fiction adventure stories while their wives read trash fiction romance novels. It was the Netflix/Youtube of it's day. Of course some people read "good" things or consume "high culture" but most people consume whatever the mass market media of their day is (hence why it's called "mass market").

Postman describes it otherwise.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#59

Post by _8j50 »

ridhwaan wrote: post #3

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…

Ashamed to say I haven't read a non-tech book start to finish in a long time. I simply don't enjoy it. Some of the technical long articles (even scientific ones like quantamagazine) or wikipedia pages I enjoy reading. I even sometimes look up topics out of curiosity and get lost in wikipedia for hours.

I can't stand written novels or other non-tech/spiritual books. Same with audiobook or acted out narrated versions. I just have too many things fighting for my time and attention.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#60

Post by bluescrn »

ridhwaan wrote: post #3

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…

Right now, there is no real news to read, just grim statistics, anger, and blame.

Best thing you can do for your mental health is limit your intake of it.

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