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.
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46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
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Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#22Why 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.
Because most of the great intellectual works exist in these "legacy form factors."
Of the past yes, but what about the present and future?
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#23Uh, why not link to the actual YouGov poll rather than the blogspam? Here: https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/48239-54-per...
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Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#24A lot higher than what I had thought. If only around 20% of Americans read a book, any book , within the ages 18-29, maybe the ranges outside of it make up for it?
Crosstabs are here - it’s surprisingly consistent across age groups:
https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabRepor...
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#25This is the source study and a much better overview: https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/48239-54-per... And that also links to the real data. Toplines: https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econtoplines... Crosstabs: https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabRepor... 49% of Americans read at least 2 books.
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Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#26Is there more data than that? Such as how other countries measure or how much people read online?
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#27Why 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.
Books are not a legacy form factor.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#28Here is a more in depth article which presumably is interpreting the same statistics [0].
Note that mystery, crime, romance and history were among the top genres. I would venture that many more Americans watch mystery, crime, romance and history shows than the 46%.
To me, this borders on trying to draw conclusions from sensationalist titles like "only 10% of all Americans listen to the town cryer for news". There are other forms of media that people use to consume information or entertainment.
[0] https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/48239-54-per...
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#29Why 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.
Perhaps it doesn't have to be reading only a book, and you could very well be reading a scientific paper instead. But reading engages a whole different category of your psyche. I believe that most valuable content is often found in the form of a book rather than a movie. Perhaps there are more books to be read than there movies to be watched. But I hear you; these are much more meaningful than mindlessly scrolling away elsewhere.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#30Why 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.
Because most of the great intellectual works exist in these "legacy form factors."
I can read a quick Wikipedia article and get the gist of them pretty quickly then what's the point?
If you enjoy reading that's one thing but there's not much point otherwise.