I posit we do more of different types of reading than we used to.
We read more things online than in traditional books, this often includes reading traditional books in an electronic format.
I’ve also read that subtitles are incredibly popular now, even for watching shows and movies in your own language. Foreign shows are more popular than ever, as well.
Reading novels isn’t done as much but I think just the nature of why we read has changed.
It’s just not the same for cognitive development and engagement.
Skimming headlines, occasional (short ) articles, and reading pithy comments is vastly different from sustained reading of a single text.
The first is what my dopamine-seeking ADHD slips into multiple times daily as I procrastinate doing my work; the light “popcorn” reading I’m doing is intellectually engaging, on some level, but it’s also further fueling my atrophying attention span. And I’m almost exclusively getting surface-level, easily shared ideas that lack nuance.
Actually sitting down and focusing on a text, even if it’s a pulp fiction story, works the brain in different ways, requiring sustained attention and deeper comprehension on whatever topic we’re reading about (or more involved stories).
So, yes. You’re right. Many still are reading a lot. But not reading books is still a huge problem for our society.
And I’m glad that I do both; reading is my primary source of entertainment, professional development, and personal growth. I just hope I’m successful in raising both my kiddos to be readers. (1 of 2, so far, but the youngest is only 6…)
And I think it’s time to get off Lemmy and get back to my book.
I used to read more, but then video games became capable of telling captivating stories and writers and artists could share their ideas and visions directly with people in a way never possible before, and often more intimately and thoroughly than before. I’m not after the experience of reading a book, I’m after the experience of experiencing other peoples’ perspectives, feelings, experiences and art. And there are mediums other than written word that do that for me. In the past, there simply wasn’t enough content for other mediums to take the place of reading completely for those things.
