I “read” on “the internet” to “make myself miserable”
It’s a doom-page-turner!
It’s gotten really silly but I’m too invested at this point
A decade ago I used to go through 3 books a week. Now I might read 3 a year. The world’s gone to such shit that fiction almost feels too quaint to be enjoyable. I know that’s not logical, but it’s how it feels…and it’s awful.
Judging by your president, I think 40% fewer Americans read. For fun or otherwise.
Yeah, we can tell…
Unfortunately it’s not just a US problem. It’s more of a general issue. People ‘read’ a lot, but generally the wrong things. Like social media. And it’s causing people to lose their ‘reading muscles’ so to speak.
When I first got online in 1995, forum posts were much longer and more insightful. These days you see a lot of ‘tl;dr’ attitudes.
In my opinion, reading is a fundamental part of the human experience and important in people’s general development. Reading needs to be encouraged if possible, enforced if necessary. But there’s a lot of resistance to that.
can you write a tldr for this pls
Internet bad.
You can blame things like YouTube for forum posts like that drying up. Why read when I can watch a video? (This does not reflect my opinion, merely the very simple thinking many people employ.)
You’re not wrong on that thought. But it’s even worse: with TikTok and YouTube Shorts, people aren’t even really seeing proper YouTube videos, just short snippets. God only knows what that’s doing to people’s attention spans, but I doubt it’s good.
I feel like I’m a dying breed: people who can enjoy long form content without needing a dopamine hit every five seconds.
And the algorithm is oushing creators to either do shorts or long content it seems. There are few videos in the 3-10 minute range any more. It’s either 90 seconds or 45 minutes. Most of the shit I want to watch lands in 30-60mins but I don’t have the time to dedicate to them often.
Personally, I’m a really long form guy :D Particularly on technical subjects and/or disasters. For example, ‘Well there’s your problem’ tends to run at least 2, usually closer to 3 hours. And ‘Brick Immortar’ recently put out a 3+ hour video on the SS Marine Electric disaster.
That’s the stuff that really makes me excited. So I definitely support loooong form creators where possible.
Reclassify doom scrolling as recreational.
I solve problems people.
I discovered AO3 2 years ago and have over 400 bookmakers that I’m actively reading when they update. Don’t worry everyone I’ll binge read for the rest of you
I read AoE3, and was curious how that had nothing to do with books. And AoE2 was the best.
I think a big part is the switch to audiobooks, I know a lot of my friends have moved almost exclusively to those. It’s a lot easier to listen to a book while cleaning, driving, working out, cooking, etc.
I still read physical books, but I have to set aside time for it, time I could spend doing something else if I was free to just listen to it.
More other types of entertainment existing now.
We can’t extrapolate data from “Americans” to say “people in general” like this title does.
Americans and declining education is not a new phenomenon nor is it global. Americans are also not role models for anything.
Ah yes, the famous two countries in the world, the US and Denmark, our good old two-country world.
I don’t have the mental bandwidth to read Mich. I’m always exausted
I read because it’s nice to be in a differently reality for a bit. I generally do fantasy, because the world’s immersive and it’s fun to get lost in. My buddy said he’s reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, and I had it in the list, and it’s definitely not the escape that The Stormlight Archive was.
As with others here, I also do the audiobook thing. Reading is reserved for the time before bed, 15-30m or so, and audiobooks are for when you’re engaged in something that doesn’t require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.
when you’re engaged in something that doesn’t require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.
Jesus that sounds horrible. I mean, yeah, me too, but still…
I’m part of this as well. I read a ton as a kid to the point my parents took away my books as punishment. Gaming definitely did (and does) take up more and more time I could be reading with. But it’s honestly been give and take. Recent games reignited a desire to read sci fi, so I got 3 books into the Dune series and read Neuromancer and some of Gibsons other short stories just this year.
I hope that we see a resurgence similar to vinyl, where physical media gets a revival. I’ll admit, i read quite a few books on my phone. Maybe I’m getting old, but having the actual books is becoming more and more appealing by the day. It might be coming back guys!
Obviously the Internet plays a big role in this as people have said, but it’s worth mentioning this was also the era where tv stopped sucking (from reality tv awfulness to a bunch of absolute banger dramas), AND where Netflix and then other streaming services became available. So there are huge competition effects.
I’ve also never bought fully into the “reading good TV bad” mindset. Leisure is leisure, especially if the article’s raised point is “identifying with literary characters”. That certainly happens in other forms of media. Even if it’s reading to learn, I watch a LOT of YouTube these days, and probably 75% of what I watch is how to and instructional. Also let’s not forget with each new form of leisure: “fast-paced music” (classical), books for the masses, magazines, tv, jazz, rock and roll, DnD, the internet, VR etc…there was always someone saying the new stuff will rot your brain while they pine for something that was maligned when it was new.
If anything the internet makes reading easier than ever. It’s not hard to download a small eBook file on your phone for free.
There’s so much worse happening to society, so many more important things the media and “studies” could be pushing.
Why isn’t this article about the growth in the wage gap between lowest paid and highest at companies between those years.
Why isn’t it about the fact we’re in a new dark age of war where starvation (Gaza) and chemical weapons (Ukraine) are being used.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if people read more”
Yes, but shut the fuck up and turn your media clout to something more important. Fix the quality of life and justice issues.
The Neo-Liberal force of the media and academia are largely misapplied to both-siding Capitalism and the Capitalist Fascism it’s produced, and I’m sick of it.
Your post is why I read.
I do a ton of recreational reading, but it’s mostly articles and comments here instead of books.
