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46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

nathanbransford.com

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Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#111

Post by pram »

maximus-decimus wrote: post #73

I have a hard time believing 54% did read a book. 18% of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate, and I don't know for you, I really don't feel like reading a book after I work the whole day at a computer.

I’m pretty sure my father, a baby boomer, never read a SINGLE book after high school. Same with my mother.

This is a perennial observation about general illiteracy in the US but who was even alive when this wasn’t the case? lol

Fahrenheit 451 is a 70 year old book complaining about this exact problem.

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#112

Post by kvonhorn »

charonn0 wrote: post #103
maximus-decimus wrote: post #73

I have a hard time believing 54% did read a book. 18% of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate, and I don't know for you, I really don't feel like reading a book after I work the whole day at a computer.

> 18% of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate N.B. This stat appears to pertain to English language literacy, not literacy per se. Some of those 18%ers might be reading Dante in the original Italian or Shakespeare in the original Klingon.

> Shakespeare in the original Klingon

citation needed

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#113

Post by lawn »

arnaudsm wrote: post #8

Why do we obsess so much over legacy form factors? Watching movies, listening to 2h conference talks, playing a 60h narrative videogame, and reading scientific papers in PDF may not be as noble, but they are equally meaningful to me.

> legacy form factors

It may be old, but calling it "legacy" implied it's an old relic we should abandon.

I'll say that the opposite is the case. We should be reading more, and do less of passive activities such as watching movies or listening to conferences (where its very easy to zone out and not get any useful transfer).

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#114

Post by LMYahooTFY »

charonn0 wrote: post #103
maximus-decimus wrote: post #73

I have a hard time believing 54% did read a book. 18% of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate, and I don't know for you, I really don't feel like reading a book after I work the whole day at a computer.

> 18% of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate N.B. This stat appears to pertain to English language literacy, not literacy per se. Some of those 18%ers might be reading Dante in the original Italian or Shakespeare in the original Klingon.

Yes perhaps .001%, or even .002% of that 18% have probably done that.

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#115

Post by FredPret »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #109
FredPret wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you know games can be incredibly informative even though they usually aren't. I learned history in a way that sticks much better from Europa Universalis and Total War than from books, even though those games aren't even real in the sense that you're making up a new timeline. Orbital mechanics only clicked for me when trying to land a rover on the Mun in KSP. Maybe entertaining simulations are the second-best way t…

I've met a lot more people who were profoundly misled about history by paradox/4x games than those who were meaningfully educated by them. acoup actually has a good series of blogs about how they serve as a form of historical education, which is worth reading through: https://acoup.blog/2021/04/30/collections-teaching-paradox-e...

You don't learn the actual facts of what happened of course.

But you do learn about the situation in which different countries and historical figures found themselves and the options they had.

This is much more valuable because this type of learning has lessons for today; versus merely memorizing that king such-and-such did this-and-that in 1523, which doesn't.

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#116

Post by almatabata »

arnaudsm wrote: post #58
shikshake wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading is an active skill vs watching something is more passive. There’s lots of pathways in your brain that intensive reading lights up compared to other mediums. And lots of studies show that you retain more information and building stronger informational connections when reading vs watching. No one is telling you to stop watching movies or playing video games, but being a more active participant in a leisure acti…

Gaming is more active than reading. Maybe you're also thinking of imagination's involvment?

> Gaming is more active than reading.

It does depend heavily on the game. There are games that involve a lot of farming where I think reading a book problem results in larger brain activity.

Puzzle games like the witness engage the brain much more.

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#117

Post by olddustytrail »

arnaudsm wrote: post #69
olddustytrail wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, can you name a computer game that is a great artistic work? There are many that are good , but I can't say there are any that are on a par with, say, "The Lord of the Rings" or "War and Peace" or "1984". I'd love to hear of one that was though.

Posterity only remembers the most acclaimed pieces, there are plenty of airport novels no one remembers and that have nothing to envy to modern Tiktok.

Yes, there are. I made a deliberate decision about 10 years ago to only read good novels just because I'd read so many terrible ones! But I'm hoping my question will lead to some good narrative game recommendations.

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#118

Post by TheCoelacanth »

Erratic6576 wrote: post #59
arnaudsm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article above is about their decline in consumption

There’s no such decline in consumption. There’s always been a horde of illiterate people among the lower classes because decoding written letters is a very abstract and complicated intellectual activity. A few centuries ago, the illiteracy rate was way higher. But it’s always been mostly been niche activity for intelligent people, that’s why the school used to focus on training that skill

There is a decline compared to the brief time period between the invention of compulsory education and the invention of TV.

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#119

Post by xnx »

mythrwy wrote: post #77

I'm in the 46% that didn't read a book in 2023. But I probably read 3 or 4 hours (or more) a day. I used to read lots of books before the internet but the internet mostly replaced it. There are a few perspectives one can take. Maybe (probably) attention spans, including mine, have decreased with the internet. On the other hand, many non fiction books could be summed up in pamphlet and are full of filler. It's not nec…

Agree. I read more than ever, but it is extremely rare that a topic warrants hundreds of pages. The book form factor is dictated by what the market accepts and will pay for. It is rarely the best form for the material which would likely benefit from editing for length and addition of full color illustration.

Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023

#120

Post by Kon5ole »

arnaudsm wrote: post #22
Extropy_ wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most of the great intellectual works exist in these "legacy form factors."

Of the past yes, but what about the present and future?

I think books are still the best way for a single mind to communicate complex ideas. Movies and games are teamwork, many ideas from several people (for better and worse).

Maybe generative AI will get to the point where a single author can create a comic, movie or game with similar depths as that of books but it hasn't yet.

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