Thanks for this. With the internet, I read all day long. I just don't read physical media as much as I used to. All the books I read this year were on some kind of digital media.
From discussion I had recently with friends, lots of people listen to, rather than read, books. Does that really count?
thanks! And that's a good Q.. I don't think that listening to books counts as reading books, but i do think it counts as a route to knowing what is said in them. beyond that, i bet these people still spend a lot of time reading in many of the other ways :)
I think you’re completely on the money with your questioning of the underlying assumptions and concerns. What we have here is worry, perhaps anxiety, that the “right” kind of people aren’t reading the “right” kind of books anymore. Christopher Lasch would probably have something interesting to say about this.
I'm not big on the 'death of reading' narrative. Lots of people are reading great stuff. But there is plenty of evidence that not all kinds of reading are equal. For instance, this study that shows reading digitally means reading more superficially and results in less comprehension: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.002
If I read your article in a print magazine, I would have engaged with it much more seriously and comprehensively. And reading print magazines is something I used to do that I no longer bother with. Instead, I read articles online, which I barely remember and never talk about. Sure, the flip side is that I have access to far more material that is closer aligned with my interests, but I'm not convinced that's actually a benefit.
I don't think there's any question that although reading is far from dead, there is something markedly different about how people read and what that's doing to our brains, our knowledge and our intelligence. And I don't mean to compare reading today to some mythical past where everyone read Cicero and didn't need annotations for Shakespeare. Rather, I find myself despairing that we could be a far more literate society than we are.
Martha Nussbaum, in Love's Knowledge, argues that reading complex fictions (like Henry James) is necessary for our moral education. If instead we're reading the simplified prescriptions of social media (or in her version, of professional philosophy) we won't develop the fine nuanced moral judgement that we should.
I recommend everyone read (or listen to) The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource by MSNBC host Chris Hayes. I think it really helps frame this conversation about what is being read, by whom, and why.
I listen to a lot of books because I drive and walk my dog a lot, and work in the garden/yard too. I also read in the traditional way - and I read all the online stuff too, like other people have commented. In my opinion, gaining knowledge, even if it's just new vocabulary words, is reading...so I think listening to books counts just as much as holding a book and scanning the words with your eyes.
Thanks for this. With the internet, I read all day long. I just don't read physical media as much as I used to. All the books I read this year were on some kind of digital media.
From discussion I had recently with friends, lots of people listen to, rather than read, books. Does that really count?
thanks! And that's a good Q.. I don't think that listening to books counts as reading books, but i do think it counts as a route to knowing what is said in them. beyond that, i bet these people still spend a lot of time reading in many of the other ways :)
I think listening to books counts as reading.
I think you’re completely on the money with your questioning of the underlying assumptions and concerns. What we have here is worry, perhaps anxiety, that the “right” kind of people aren’t reading the “right” kind of books anymore. Christopher Lasch would probably have something interesting to say about this.
thanks!
I'm not big on the 'death of reading' narrative. Lots of people are reading great stuff. But there is plenty of evidence that not all kinds of reading are equal. For instance, this study that shows reading digitally means reading more superficially and results in less comprehension: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.002
And this study shows that the methods of reading are different for print and digital, and that print readers spent more time re-reading, which resulted in higher comprehension: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11145-021-10246-2
If I read your article in a print magazine, I would have engaged with it much more seriously and comprehensively. And reading print magazines is something I used to do that I no longer bother with. Instead, I read articles online, which I barely remember and never talk about. Sure, the flip side is that I have access to far more material that is closer aligned with my interests, but I'm not convinced that's actually a benefit.
There's also evidence that moving away from teaching phonics has had a significant negative impact on literacy. I found this article quite comprehensive and illuminating: https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading
I don't think there's any question that although reading is far from dead, there is something markedly different about how people read and what that's doing to our brains, our knowledge and our intelligence. And I don't mean to compare reading today to some mythical past where everyone read Cicero and didn't need annotations for Shakespeare. Rather, I find myself despairing that we could be a far more literate society than we are.
Martha Nussbaum, in Love's Knowledge, argues that reading complex fictions (like Henry James) is necessary for our moral education. If instead we're reading the simplified prescriptions of social media (or in her version, of professional philosophy) we won't develop the fine nuanced moral judgement that we should.
I recommend everyone read (or listen to) The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource by MSNBC host Chris Hayes. I think it really helps frame this conversation about what is being read, by whom, and why.
I listen to a lot of books because I drive and walk my dog a lot, and work in the garden/yard too. I also read in the traditional way - and I read all the online stuff too, like other people have commented. In my opinion, gaining knowledge, even if it's just new vocabulary words, is reading...so I think listening to books counts just as much as holding a book and scanning the words with your eyes.