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It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

theatlantic.com

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Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#161

Post by SoftTalker »

nozzlegear wrote: post #61
areoform wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Top Gun: Maverick, Obsession, Project Hail Mary Those movies might be good, but cinema are they not. Cinema traditionally has meant movies like, À bout de souffle and Citizen Kane.

No True Cinephile would enjoy a movie like Top Gun: Maverick, Obsession or Project Hail Mary. /s

A friend at the gym raved about Top Gun: Maverick when it came out, and against my better judgement I watched it on a streaming service. It was essentially Top Gun, again. Absolutely uninteresting and completely predictable. And I rather enjoyed the original.

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#162

Post by beej71 »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #52
gosub100 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave up on reading because the authors want to spend a considerable number of pages telling me the color of the buttons on an imaginary character's outfit. They have no such right to waste my time with (or even worse, charge me money for) that.

Then maybe you should not read prose. It is about conveying an experience, a story. You might have simply picked a bad author. Personally, I prefer long reads. I understand that some people might not enjoy that style of storytelling, but saying “give up reading” overall is a shame. Try something like Warhammer 40k novels. They are simple, entertaining, and split into shorter parts. What you are describing does not ha…

I read The Goldfinch a while back. Not at all my usual fare. The plot progressed at a snail's pace, but I enjoyed every page of it. (The movie treatment was horribly shallow in comparison, but there's no way they could possibly convey the depth in two hours.)

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#163

Post by Spartan-S63 »

everdrive wrote: post #155

You would be surprised just how quickly you can re-learn the focus to enjoy long-form writing and novels. Much like exercise, don't let your ego get in the way. Find something you enjoy, even if it's a bit trash, and just make it a habit. Like with everything you do regularly, your brain will get better at it, the habit will become more automatic, and you'll find yourself wanting to read more, and more often. It's ve…

I took a long break from reading for enjoyment after I graduated from college. I got burnt out from reading things I didn't enjoy in high school and undergrad. Now it's what I do to wind down my day before bed. It's a nice relaxing activity that allows my imagination to run a little.

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#164

Post by breezybottom »

bluGill wrote: post #134
breezybottom wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literacy doesn't mean your ability to speak, it means your ability to read/write. Formal schooling for the masses is a very recent invention.

It isn't hard to learn how to read at a basic level.

Sure, if you have books in your house and parents who are also literate and encouraging of it.

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#165

Post by xpct »

pastage wrote: post #145
dash2 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you do it?

Make it joyful Read books yourself Make book an important part of your life Read to the kids Teach them to read early Little to no phone use early on

> Read books yourself

Not a parent, but I'm guessing this part is very important :)

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#166

Post by naikrovek »

xpct wrote: post #154
SkyPuncher wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love learning, but I hate reading. Most of my learning now is via audio books while I'm doing something else. In my view, software development is mostly skimming and pattern recognization. Very little actual, deep reeding in my opinion.

> I love learning, but I hate reading. Correction: you love the feeling of consuming information, not learning.

How in the heck can you plausibly correct someone else like that? You (almost certainly) don’t know that person, even in passing.

People can learn from watching a documentary just as well as they can learn from reading, but reading teaches you how to interpret language as you continue reading, and other forms of information delivery convey understanding of their own mediums in their own ways. I would not have learned how to quickly spot a terrible documentary over a great one if I had not watched so many in my life. It doesn’t mean I didn’t learn anything because I watched and listened instead of read, it just means that I didn’t read the documentaries.

Pro tip: don’t correct people about their own lives.

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#167

Post by pizzalife »

WhrRTheBaboons wrote: post #150
SkyPuncher wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love learning, but I hate reading. Most of my learning now is via audio books while I'm doing something else. In my view, software development is mostly skimming and pattern recognization. Very little actual, deep reeding in my opinion.

>Most of my learning now is via audio books while I'm doing something else. You're not actually learning anything then. Memorizing trivia, sure. But not actually learning.

That seems like a pretty controversial take. Why would you not be able to learn things orally?

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#168

Post by birdsongs »

everdrive wrote: post #155

You would be surprised just how quickly you can re-learn the focus to enjoy long-form writing and novels. Much like exercise, don't let your ego get in the way. Find something you enjoy, even if it's a bit trash, and just make it a habit. Like with everything you do regularly, your brain will get better at it, the habit will become more automatic, and you'll find yourself wanting to read more, and more often. It's ve…

Absolutely. I used to read constantly, from my teenage years through my early 30's, but stopped about 5 years ago? I guess life stress and short form social media taking my free time.

But I managed to get free of all the apps, and I jumped back in by re-reading some books from my childhood (Sword of Shannara, some bad 60's/70's sci fi, etc), and really enjoyed them. It was enough to shake me out of my lull and now I have an active queue again.

My commute and mornings are so much better than scrolling instagram on the train.

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#169

Post by breezybottom »

tsunamifury wrote: post #136
breezybottom wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd suggest you do the same. You may want to believe that cinema is "dying", but none of the numbers support that argument.

Buddy, I just laid out the exact numbers that show less people go to cinema by almost half. The defintion of dying. And beyond that if you go deeper, the revenue growth is almost entirely attribured to higher prices in ticket sales while attendance in real terms continues to decline. What are you struggling with here?

So what? Revenue is price times quantity. One can offset the other, in fact, you just explained how.

Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

#170

Post by adamtaylor_13 »

bluetrain wrote: post #160
beej71 wrote: post #152

GenX here... I thought this was a great read. I still hope for a young rebellion against the forces the presented in the article. And the author does point out some reasons to hope. Personally, I read and write every day. I usually have 2-3 books I'm going through at any one time. I've noticed that on long-haul flights, the movies typically hold no interest and I just read for hours—what a luxury to have nothing else…

No offense, but this comes off as incredibly smug... Glad you're able to find the time to read and write every day, but not not everyone has that luxury.

Are you sincerely suggesting, as you write a digital comment on Hacker News, that some people don't have 10-15 minutes in their day to read or write?

Who are these people? Why do they not have the same 24 hours you and I do?

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