[Rei Murasame]

Well, is literature really a drive for knowledge in an academic sense, or is it a drive to experience a story whose themes you may or may not be familiar with in some way? I think it's actually more about experiencing a story than getting knowledge, and that a failure to realise this is why people don't understand why so many people don't read.

The people who stopped reading anything at an abnormally early age (these actually seem to be the majority of the population, but no-one who is on PoFo), are probably also the same people who also only watch TV 'to be entertained' in a kind of only-an-onlooker sense rather than letting the TV get inside their heads.

The difference in approach is psychological and covers more than just books. There are people who discuss fiction as though it was not fiction (fictional x is like real y), and there are people who don't get immersed to that level. The ones that don't get immersed are also likely to be the ones who read less as children and who have bland habits in terms of TV watching as well.

Obviously more immersion is better, but I don't know how anyone would go about encouraging other people to do that.

[Solastalgia]

It will probably go the same way as jazz, people still listen to jazz and people still produce it but anyone who says that we are still in the jazz era would be laughed out of the room.

Damnit, decky. When you're not making me laugh, you're making masterful points that make unlimited sense to me.

PS: If anyone wants to delve into this matter in a more detailed manner, I recommend reading The Shallows.

[Decky]

Damnit, decky. When you're not making me laugh, you're making masterful points that make unlimited sense to me.

You will go far on this site my child.

[AFAIK]

Most kids are avid readers, and then something strange happens around 3rd-4th grade. They read much less. Maybe the books got more difficult. Maybe they go through some kind of phase of development. Or maybe something changes in the way we deliver literature through school.

How do we keep this love of literature alive beyond 3rd/4th grade for the majority of people? That is my biggest concern. When we can find that out, we can make the world a much better (and more interesting) place. And then, conversations like these (digital VS paper books) won't be so relevant.

My mother is an avid reader and instilled this passion in her children. She read to us every night, bought books on tape and sent us to bed early enough to fit in a few chapters once we were old enough to read by ourselves. The biggest problem she faced was finding books that were at our reading level but lacking adult themes that we couldn't yet understand.

I read fiction almost exclusively until about three years ago when I became increasingly interested in politics, economics and current affairs. Now I rarely read fiction and consider TV to be a great medium for fictional story telling. I still read for several hours every day but mostly read online content from forums and news sites. Reading on my laptop I struggle to focus during lengthy passages. I don't know if it is due to the screen or the access to constant novelty and updates online.

Forums are awesome for me. They indulge my introversion and joy of reading and allow me to take as much time as I like when composing posts. I dislike the spontaneity of speech and the demands to form an opinion when conversing with people. No one considers it rude if I have nothing to say on a given topic online.