I have never read a book in my life. I might as well be illiterate, and most people around me might as well be too. Most libraries are vacant, and bookstores are gone. But all these people are doing fine - we put anything down on paper, and despite its incoherence it seems fine by standards that have stooped for reasons I do not know. I can turn in something that makes absolutely no sense, and an instructor from a decent school will tell me that he enjoyed it. Or an instructor won’t enjoy it, but since most people don’t write anything comprehensible anymore I’ll still be fine. I can cruise through my education and get a job while barely having read much at all. Everyone frequents some variant of flimsy entertainment - cable news, cartoons, social media - so why bother trying to read anything worthwhile anyways if nobody else is? Does reading actually make you more curious, more intelligent, more human?
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Notes -
Eh, book is a medium.
It doesn't make you smarter or dumber if you consume your media as book form or audio form. There are some limitations to the medium, and some advantages.
Some books and authors are great, and are able to make great pieces of art. Others, not so much...
You don’t think there’s any effect on the person from the medium itself? No truth at all to “the medium is the message”
I have many young family members and I think that the way screens affect them is pretty strong evidence, for me, that the medium of story/information matters a lot.
Kids react to iPads and television they same way they react to cake. It gets them freaking high.
We know refined sugar is bad for adults even if they aren’t as obvious in carnal delight when they consume it as kids. I think the same is likely true for screens.
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