We recently had a discussion on the forum about our preferences regarding paper/physical books vs eReaders.
I thought it was a great discussion because I love reading. However, I also wonder if it’s a ‘dying’ hobby. Over the weekend, I read in interesting article in the Atlantic:
In the article, the author argues that American society is becoming postliterate. People may encounter more written words than ever through texts, emails, and social media, but fewer are reading books, long articles, or other works that require sustained concentration.
This fascinated me, especially since it’s mentioned in the article that reading for pleasure has fallen sharply across virtually every demographic group. YIKES!
We can say that smartphones, endless entertainment, social media, and short-form video have weakened reading habits, but it also made me wonder…What might society lose if reading becomes a niche interest rather than a common habit?
When I think about my love for reading & how it’s helped me with my understanding of the world, I’m not sure technology has the same potential of doing that, but I may be wrong. Can someone be well-informed without regularly reading books or long-form journalism?
Which book or long-form article has genuinely changed the way you think?
Have you noticed a difference in your attention span after reducing your smartphone or social media use?
I’m also wondering do you think technology has changed what we read, or has it changed how we think?
PS: if the article is behind a paywall or you- you can download the audio & listen to it on your Mudita Kompakt:
I spent a week in my family’s mountain cabin with just my kompakt and read a lot more than I have in a while. I finished a few books that I had started, but the book I read the most was “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times”, which is a dialogue with Jane Goodall. I learned so much about both the world and myself from that book, that I don’t think I would have gotten from any electronic source.
The mindfulness that comes from reading from a book (or offline e-reader) can’t be matched by anything on a computer, because there is always something else to do. When I read an article on my computer, my mind is subconsciously thinking about other tasks or distractions that I could partake in. I think the reason people (myself included) have stopped reading so much is due to a larger decline in mindfulness. People just don’t take time out of their day to think anymore. A book is just a book, you can’t do anything else with it, so you are forced to confront the words in front of you. When I get bored reading an article on my computer, I just look for something else. When I got bored reading in the cabin, I went for a walk thinking about what I had read, talked to my family, and went back to reading. It’s not just the reading that’s important, it’s the conscious and subconscious processing that occurs for hours afterwords. Computers let you consume way too much in too little time for you to really benefit.
I often had trouble concentrating in school because I’m in the generation that used laptops in every class. I found that the only way I could actually invest myself in the work was to get a hard copy of whatever it was, whether the teacher provided it or I had to print it myself. This problem carried over to college because most teachers use online adaptive homework software, meaning it’s something I couldn’t print out even if I wanted to, forcing me to always be connected.
I think technology has generally changed what we read, because the majority of the internet has been curated by someone else. I definitely think it’s changed how we think, because it facilitates quick access to information that otherwise would require much more intention and thought.
This fragment of your post reminded me of something I read recently:
The article basically states the premise that heavy reliance on screens and a lot of tech in education may be weakening students’ reading, writing, judgement, and critical-thinking skills.
Educational technology became widespread in U.S. schools in the early 2000s after laptops and Chromebooks were promoted as tools for personalized learning. However, critics point to declining standardized test scores and research suggesting that students often use classroom devices for unrelated activities.
I am still bewildered that most schools nowadays do not use books at all, and all work is done on computers, and this starts early. My daughter had a chrome book in first grade, where she was supposed to learn math and language on. With the covid shutdown, she was homeschooled in third grade, she was not at grade level and she expressed she did not like those learning programs and they made no sense to her. We caught her up with pen and paper and physical books and it’s been that way since even at our current school.
I had read somewhere (in a book! Maybe it was Glow Kids?) that research does show learning on screens isn’t as effective, the material isn’t retained as well, but schools adopted laptops/tablets anyway due to the push from the tech industry.
From my own experience, I have always loved reading and as a late adopter I didn’t have a smartphone (or faster internet) until my late 20s, so I am used to learning from books. I definitely read fewer books when I had a smartphone and was using social media. It was much harder to concentrate when on screens a lot, the brain is so stimulated and I hated that feeling of having trouble slowing down enough to enjoy a book or long article, and also having less time.
Recently whenever my siblings and I are talking about books or long articles, the comment is AI can summarize the books and that saves you time and energy from reading them…
