I've regretted hours spent watching TV, playing computer games, trying to figure out how to complete a task with no information available, being stuck waiting somewhere with nothing to do, but I can't think of a case I've regretted time spent reading. There may be people in the world whose lives would be improved by reading less, but I'm guessing a vanishingly small number.
I have noticed that when I spend a lot of time reading dystopian fiction, the sense of despair from that dystopia creeps into how I react to real-life. Not all fiction seems to work like that for me, but that style in particular leaves me looking up and going "Whoa," as I readjust to reality. So I do get where the author is coming from here; I think if you spend a significant part of your life in any constructed universe (whether that's Gilligan's Island, Fallout, or Harry Potter), you're inevitably going to start adapting to that universe at least a little bit.
The typical dystopian novel envisaged states of complete surveillance and technology turning against humanity. This is far more possible now with internet and AI than it was in the 50s, and we're already seeing the very same technologies envisaged in those novels being created and turned against humanity right on point (drones, surveillance, loss of privacy, mass media manipulation, etc).
It's not a statement about life being better or worse than the 50s per se; that can be debated. But we're definitely in a far more "dystopian" state of affairs than we were in the 50s.
The author seems to be focused on low-quality reading, both in terms of the material itself and in terms of habits formed while giving the material the (scant) attention it deserves. He says we encounter almost half a million words daily. No one is giving that stuff a deep reading, or should.
The culprit is probably work. Think of how much of the typical office job involves ingesting low-quality information at high speed. The jobs aren't mentally taxing, but they do burn you out from serious reading, because of all the time wasted on peoples' shitty emails. You basically need to become a skimmer to survive modern life, especially if you work an office job, and there's a nonzero amount of mental effort in code switching from serious reading to half-assed work email reading.
I've regretted reading many times in the past. Case in point - this site wasting hours of my time, as well as plenty of stories that I just couldn't tear myself away from even though it was hours past bed o'clock causing exhaustion.
> can't think of a case I've regretted time spent reading
Hmm, as an inexperienced youth I read - and believed - stuff that I now recognize as totally poisonous crap.
Putting someone else's thoughts in your brain should be better regulated. There used to be censorship, abolishing it was probably a bad idea. Yes, I know how we've been conditioned about that. Sort of proves my point.
> Hmm, as an inexperienced youth I read - and believed - stuff that I now recognize as totally poisonous crap.
Sometimes you have to read crap in order to realize it's crap.
Fortunately, over time, it seems that we develop a certain "smell" for books. I am very picky about what I read nowdays, and my "hunch" for good books seem to be mostly accurate.
Here’s my hot take: because of the deeply held cultural belief that screen time is bad and books are good.
Certainly there are truths behind that, but I think we need to realize that videos and even video games can be informative, uplifting, moving, etc, just like books. And conversely books can be a huge waste of time.
I think it also helps that, with reading, you usually have one book in front of you. There are no "related books" vying for your attention in the sides of the page. This is more true for physical books.
Re: "deeply held cultural belief that screen time is bad" - I agree that's likely part of it, and that belief probably isn't as rooted in fact as it might be.
Not sure I can say I've experienced a computer game that I could say has come close to being as enlightening or life-changing as a book (though I have met people through playing them that have changed my life, which counts for something).
TV is entertainment, and certainly the free-to-air stuff only exists because it keeps you glued to the screen long enough to absorb the ads that pay for it, and even relatively low-brow stuff (think, uh, Two & half Men, or I dunno, Gossip Girl) can still be oddly addictive and a huge time suck in a way that poorly written books etc. never are, because I far more quickly put them down and find something better to read.
I think it’s just like the difference of being spoon fed some yoghurt compared to having a full course dinner. That being said I still find YouTube better than Netflix, or worse, TV in that regard - at least you chose the yoghurt and some of it is actually pretty healthy (e.g. some of the top notch educational content).
