Putting pen to paper is obsolete, and even typing is disappearing as people rely on voice to text. People get their entertainment and news from podcasts or thirty second video clips. They won't even read subtitles for thirty seconds.

If we continue in this way, the next generation will be completely illiterate, even if they're college educated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. Maryanne Wolf has written about this:

https://www.maryannewolf.com/books-1

She wrote my favorite book! About the “reading brain” in the digital age. I highly highly recommend it. Reading her prose alone was unexpectedly satisfying. Her language is deliberate and concise with specific, concrete word use. I could feel my brain growing joyously as I read it. Sounds ridiculous, but it’s a must read. It’s fascinating to boot.

You what I did? No lie - I went to her website to see if she had a twitter I could follow. Then I realized what I was doing. Doh.

Books are an inferior way of communicating information. Little scratches in ink on a page? Conveying words? Come on. It is pathetic. We now have far superior methods. Little videos etc.

Anonymous wrote:I agree. Maryanne Wolf has written about this:

https://www.maryannewolf.com/books-1

She wrote my favorite book! About the “reading brain” in the digital age. I highly highly recommend it. Reading her prose alone was unexpectedly satisfying. Her language is deliberate and concise with specific, concrete word use. I could feel my brain growing joyously as I read it. Sounds ridiculous, but it’s a must read. It’s fascinating to boot.

maybe some great literature is readable but have you tried to finish something like Ulysses? Could never even finish the first chapter. And who wants to read 1500 pages about napoleon’s invasion of Russia? I know I’m suppose to read that but the daily grind can make it hard to pick up a work of great literature in the evenings to relax. Much easier to scroll through my social media feeds. I know should be setting a better example for dd…

Anonymous wrote:People didn't read the original Dickens or Dumas all at once. They were installments in magazines and paid by the page.

This. It was like watching a TV show or multi-part video. Also it was *about* them / relevant to their lives in a way it isn't relevant to ours. Still great stories, I love Dickens, but you need to understand the context.

I'm a voracious reader -- I read easily 50 books a year -- but OP would probably scoff at my choices. Sci fi, romance, YA, maybe a little comedic non-fiction. I'm an escapist reader, I have no interest in heavy drama.

I read a ton, but I'm not reading anything brag worthy. I reach about a book a week, maybe every other week. I have limited time so I'm going to read what I enjoy, not something that will make me sound intelligent or cultured.

People's capacity to read books has absolutely declined. There's no question about it. A 400 page novel used to be easy reading for any reasonably intelligent adult. But these days if you pop into a bookstore everything seems to be novellas if we can call it that. But now we as a society struggle with anything longer than a short magazine article.

I must admit I was once a voracious reader and now in my 40s I barely read a full book in a year. I'm embarrassed by it. But I also notice that when I go into a bookstore to browse the new books, the quality of current fiction seems to have also declined. And the stories themselves? It's either best selling authors from 25 years ago tiredly churning out another version of the same book, or the new young writers all writing the same story, just changing the skin colors or ethnicity, but it's effectively still the same woke story. It's rare for a new book to truly grab me.

Anonymous wrote:I’m early 40s and do not have a single non-work friend that reads books. Or even listens to audibles. I only know one person at work that reads.

I used to be a voracious reader as a kid/teen/early 20s. Now I can read maybe 30 books a year. I could pretend it’s life/family taking up time but I really think my attention span has been ruined from social media/reading news or other articles online. It’s something I’m actively working to change.

30 books a year is still quite a lot and you should see it as an accomplishment. That is more than a book every 2 weeks.

I’m early 40s and do not have a single non-work friend that reads books. Or even listens to audibles. I only know one person at work that reads.

I used to be a voracious reader as a kid/teen/early 20s. Now I can read maybe 30 books a year. I could pretend it’s life/family taking up time but I really think my attention span has been ruined from social media/reading news or other articles online. It’s something I’m actively working to change.

I go to a book club of parents from a sought-after private school. No matter what title is chosen, inevitably only 25% of us actually read the book- not finish, *partially* read. People are unembarrassed to say “it was too long”, or “there were too many names”, etc. This isn’t heavy stuff, experimental stuff, etc.- we’re talking Oprah’s book club picks.

I’m not going type out a rant about screens or tech oligarchs or the idea that we have accepted that making a ton of money is considered interchangeable with being intelligent and cultured, but I’d like to.

I agree. Maryanne Wolf has written about this:

https://www.maryannewolf.com/books-1

I make time for reading every day currently reading The Last King of America.

People didn't read the original Dickens or Dumas all at once. They were installments in magazines and paid by the page.

We have a more educated population yet there's been a reduction in the reading level that seems to line up with the rise of social media.

Some Tech guru (Dorsey?) said something about how we don't "need" War and Peace anymore, we can do it briefly with the new advances.

In his day, Charles Dickens was massively popular among factory workers, but in today's much more educated population people say "it's too intellectual, 600 pages is too long" etc. Apparently we don't need great literature anymore because there's Twitter, Tiktok and ChatGPT.

It's a strange phenomenon.