- The end of reading ➶
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But what if you consistently replace one kind of action (reading a word) with another (watching an Instagram Reel)? One of the most robust findings in neuroscience is that people’s brains master what they practice. If we fill our time with short-form videos instead of books, our reading skills atrophy. We have less background knowledge to aid comprehension. There’s no danger of spontaneous mass illiteracy, but the complex cognitive skills that reading fosters start to degrade. The library of the mind falls into disrepair.
I love reading and writing on paper, and do read and write quite a bit on computer screens. Phone screens are too small and uncomfortable.
But there hasn’t been a TV at home for two decades, and even videogames, which I love, have been less interesting lately unless they have good cooperative modes, unusual gameplay mechanics, or excellent sound and story.
Nowadays I lean towards learning to play a new instrument, which has felt like a present from the gods, and having read McLuhan and Lanier, and the above article, I do worry about the future, but am hopeful young people will indeed rebel.
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Possibly Related:
- Let Readers Read
- Two thousand and twenty-five
- Better living through Beowulf
- Two thousand and twenty-four
- Learning in depth
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