[offtop5]

I had a starling Revelation today. People just don't read anymore, instead they buy a book so they can take some photos for Instagram and then shove it under a couch or something.

The biggest problem with so much access to information, is it's simply impossible to absorb it all. You can read tweets from hundreds of people before you can get through the first chapter of Harry Potter.

I fear this has caused a permanent dumbing down of society

[LegitShady]

> I had a starling Revelation today. People just don't read anymore, instead they buy a book so they can take some photos for Instagram and then shove it under a couch or something.

There's some selection bias here, because you wouldn't know about all the people who do read but don't post it to instagram.

[Aerroon]

Perhaps it has to do with the type of fiction and maybe a little bit with school? When I was done with high school one of the things I celebrated was that I would never (have to) read a fiction book ever again. Literature class turned me so off from reading that I was fairly convinced about this.

A couple of years later I stumbled across Light Novels, which led to Web Novels, and eventually more fiction of other types. Nowadays I sometimes wish that I would read less. Sometimes my binge reading can get out of hand.

Perhaps there are others that have been turned off from reading? Perhaps they simply haven't come across the type of fiction that would grip them? Fiction is about entertainment after all. Books will offer you the widest variety of stories. More so than any other entertainment medium. There should be something for most people.

[germinalphrase]

Functional literary is quite high, but it is both a subject of research and social criticism that American culture is reverting to an oral - rather than literate - culture.

[dghughes]

When the Internet really took off in the mid 1990s I thought to myself with all the websites, IRC, email, blogs more people than ever are reading. Sure it's not books which are the crafted thoughts of writers instead the Internet is a million concepts.

[hallway_monitor]

I would like to read the last 10 books I bought none of which I finished and only a couple of which I've started. Instead I find myself scrolling hacker news and Twitter.

But at least I'm not on Facebook and Instagram!

[easton]

Twitter isn’t really better than Facebook, it’s short content designed to provoke an emotional reaction. HN really isn't either, although the emotional reactions here are a lot fewer and far between.

Pick up the book on the top of the stack and read the first chapter right now. You’ll be happy you did!

[dcolkitt]

One formula that works well for me is audiobooks + jogging. There's really no escape from the book for the next 30-45 minutes.