In the middle of this wonderful book called Two Wheels Good. The History and Mystery of the Bicycle.
And it hit me. Reading is like a conversation with myself. The author goes somewhere, I follow, stop them, create my own reasoning, let them keep going. Try to predict where it’s going. Etc.
It’s as if we were trading the wheel on the freeway. I take the wheel because a paragraph reminisces me of something lived a while ago. A similar situation, maybe or something related. Then I wander a bit around it, trying to see multiple perspectives. Working up my memory and imagination. And then I go back to the block of text and its muse, the author. Who takes back the wheel and I just look around, observing.
There is none of that with video and audio.
You become a complete prisoner. If you voice yourself, you can’t. It will be weak, under breath. You never really use your intellect when you’re listening to someone or watching their live feed.
This is why reading is so fundamental. It is the best tool for intelligence, period. It is a gym for the brain.
It doesn’t work with a conversation with someone or multiple people, for people are biased and have agendas. When you read, it’s just you and the author. That’s a clean state to build up from because there’s only your bias and the author’s to deal with. No third layer that fucks it all up.
There’s truly a hivemind culture born from social media/phones/podcasts use, no reading whatsoever, and it’s not helping our world.
Recently I really have been feeling the sedating effect of all-day videos that people are going through. People read less. Despite more access to knowledge than ever, people question less than ever.
I’m concerned.