"You're in Plato's cave but everyone is bed rotting."
It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
321–330 of 349 posts
Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
To add to this, it isn't "doing it bad" if you aren't out there reading deep texts. Just as it isn't "doing it badly" if you can't run a 4 minute mile. As you say, you get better at what you are doing. If you want to get faster, at anything, you don't really have the option of skipping the slow phase.
But it's also important to realize that it is "doing it bad" if you are hoping to run a 4 minute mile but your only training is slowly walking around the block forever. At some point you have to seek out more substantial books. You can't just continually read pulp fiction and think you're going to improve at anything; you have to progress.
I exclusively read fiction, mostly fantasy books (I used to also read programming books, but all my learning is online now). I enjoy them. I don't feel the need to "improve".
Because of my job (and hobbies), I spend a lot of time thinking and straining my brain. After 14 hours of working I don't feel the urge to read Nietzsche or Plato. I admire people who do, but for me it's just a way to relax (and maybe escape from daily chores). Am I doing it bad?
Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#323Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#324>Americans also get much less of their news through reading than they once did. In 1975, about half of 20-somethings said they read the newspaper every day. Today less than 10 percent do. Most of the news are not worth reading. I listen to news when eating, and I am very glad I don't have to waste my reading span on this crap.
I wish there was a local news paper around me. There are national news papers with a local edition, but they don't have local reporters digging into local stories and so are not worth reading.
>they don't have local reporters digging into local stories and so are not worth reading.
National newspapers don't have reporters digging for stories any more as well. Actually, for many years.
90% of newspapers are buying or reposting their stories from news agencies, such as Bloomberg or Thomson-Reuters.
90% of their activity (in turn) is rewriting press-releases and going to press-conferences of top 500 companies and government bureaus.
In the CIS we have "local telegram channels", but they are mostly run by magistrates' press secretaries, and usually don't report on anything significant, and usually just praise the district prefect and post thinly veiled ads.
Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#325Even as the author points out people are reading more, he continues to conflate books with reading - and not just that but reading specifically physical books (referring to his stats around book ownership). The reality is that before, you needed to read huge swaths of information to find/know the relevant information. Now you don’t. The density of useful information I gather from places like Wikipedia, even long form…
> he continues to conflate books with reading - and not just that but reading specifically physical books (referring to his stats around book ownership). [emphasis added] She and her, the author is a woman.
Good catch. My apologies. I won’t edit, but just to preserve the accuracy of your correction.
Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
By your rather … interesting… logic. Opera is most popular now than in the 1800s. (It’s not).
Popularity was never part of the conversation.
This is getting increasingly silly
Popularity is a contributor to 'life' aka not dying.
Revenues are down Ticket sales are down Popularity is down.
Stop my guy you're just showing yourself to be foolish
Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish there was a local news paper around me. There are national news papers with a local edition, but they don't have local reporters digging into local stories and so are not worth reading.
>they don't have local reporters digging into local stories and so are not worth reading. National newspapers don't have reporters digging for stories any more as well. Actually, for many years. 90% of newspapers are buying or reposting their stories from news agencies, such as Bloomberg or Thomson-Reuters. 90% of their activity (in turn) is rewriting press-releases and going to press-conferences of top 500 companies…
True, but at least there are reporters.
For national or international news I feel if it matters I will find out. However I'm in the dark about what happens in my state. My city is even worse - and those are places an informed voter can make a difference.
Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#328> Margaret Rennix, Harvard’s assistant director for humanities and social-sciences support, told me she’d spoken with a student who was struggling to read a book written in Old English. The culprit: Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange. (The student used ChatGPT to “translate” the book into easier language.) Has the author read A Clockwork Orange? It is filled with made-up "slang" that's basically just Rus…
A large point of being literate is that you can pick up context clues to figure out what some word might mean.
And yes that includes slang.
Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#329You 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…
Like many joys in life, I simply had less time to enjoy it as I instead spend hours a day reading news, job apps, and technical documents. I read plenty, but not any fiction for recreation.
Re: It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
You absolutely can learn orally, what I'd question is if you can do so without active listening. Listing to anything while doing, well anything, is pretty pointless to me, I tends to not listen and not absorb anything. I can barely listen to a podcast while working out, I miss huge gaps where my brain just isn't listening.
This is where you and I are different. I’m neurodivergent so having another low-mental load activity (like cleaning) actually helps my mind from wondering.
If the has to do with being neurodivergent or neurotypical I have no idea, it might just be people being different, but low-mental load activities is what makes my mind wander off. It's also something I actively want to happen, hence working out without music, podcasts or audio-books. To me at least it's a kind of meditation and it calms my mind.