Posted on 10/14/2025 2:44:19 PM PDT by Angelino97
The journal iScience recently published a study showing that the share of Americans who read books for pleasure has fallen 40 percent over the last 20 years. Unfortunately, this decline has endured for generations. For example, among high school seniors in 1976, 11.5 percent did not read a single book for pleasure; by 2021, this had risen to 41 percent.
It’s a similar situation in Britain. A recent survey revealed that 47 percent of adults do not read books by choice—roughly half the population of England. More worryingly, two-thirds of 16- to 24-year-olds describe themselves as “non-readers” or “lapsed” readers. Fewer children than ever are reading, and the number of those doing so between the ages of 8 and 10 has halved in the last 12 years.
The average American teenager spends 7 and a half hours each day gazing at screen, which accounts for approximately half of their waking lives. Teenagers live in an era of curated existence—a false and inauthentic digital reality, where they recede from experiential reality. A meaningful engagement with the real world is lost when life is mediated through screens.
The internet is not so much changing how we think but chipping away at our ability to think. The University of Southern California’s extensive Understanding America Study, shows that personality traits commonly encountered in academic psychology have changed over the past decade, with the most negative impacts visible among young people.
Data published in the Financial Times show that the character traits correlated with positive outcomes—for example, being conscientious and extroverted—are in precipitous decline among those between 16 and 39 years old. Conversely, neuroticism has increased considerably. Within this demographic, the number of individuals who agree with the assertion that they are “easily distracted” has skyrocketed.
The power of thought has been outsourced to Silicon Valley. As we become increasingly enslaved to technology, like prisoners trapped in Plato’s cave, we mistake shadows for reality. Our modern-day puppet masters are the tech elite who shape our behavior with algorithms meant to create echo chambers and promote tribalism.
There is no “marketplace of ideas” as we have been taught to understand it. Today, ideas are mediated by dopamine, clicks, and retweets. Audience capture holds content creators captive in accordance with their subscribers’ ideologies. The revolution will not be televised; it will be live-streamed. Democracy is in no danger of being overthrown, but it is being over-entertained.
Wisdom is not lost, but it is abandoned one distraction at a time. Meaningful engagement with the world seems out of the question when we are in the thrall of an internet driven by the sadistic logic of spectacle, which prioritizes immediacy and emotional impact. As a result, political debates devolve into performative outrages and soundbites, reducing complexity to simplicity. Rather than seeking to develop ourselves, we sit passively, watching our own obsolescence.
Social media, too, becomes something other than merely a means of sharing information. It is more like a hive mind, a collectivized moral system shaming individuals and enforcing norms and behavior—a digital panopticon that polices the boundaries of acceptable discourse. It is a place where self-righteous, emotionally incontinent, vindictive race baiters spew sociological ideological certainties down a drain of moral turpitude.
Thinking on your own is a forgotten skill, a relic of the past. As Pascal wrote, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” For those ensnared in the matrix, silence feels unbearable, reflection like punishment and patience is considered a weakness.
It is not just books that we are ignoring, we also ignore each other. Robert Putnam has documented the decline of traditional, civic, religious and social organizations such as labor unions, volunteer Red Cross workers, and fraternal organizations. We’re not just bowling alone, we are alone. Neoliberalism and hyper-individualism have rendered social connection obsolete. It explains why rich westerners are depressed and atomized despite their extensive online “interaction” with others.
According to the American Perspectives Survey, the percentage of Americans without close friends has quadrupled since 1990. Those who do have friends now spend less than three hours per week with them, compared to six hours, which was the common practice a decade ago.
Participating in these kinds of communitarian activities makes us happier, increases social capital, and protects us against loneliness. Simply put, people enjoy doing things with others—not just chatting through the intermediary of a screen.
Friendship is a wonderful thing. However, it is an investment that takes time, as frightening as that may appear to Gen-Z. You are not forced to live vicariously through the admiration of strangers. There are numerous ways to digitally disconnect from the internet. I recommend joining a book club at your local church: it might help you learn while making new friends.
I was a teenager when I read, and loved, Rendezvous but I never read the others. I was a big Clarke, Heinlein, Asimov fan back then.
Audio books are not my thing at all but I know some folks who wouldn’t “read” a book any other way. Mostly it is women with their women’s novels. A couple are students who are listening to Shakespeare and Thomas Friedman.
Yeah, I don’t mention the economists enough but they are quite popular. When it dawned on me that there was a work by Hayek that was in the public domain I immediately got it started. Otherwise I’m a huge fan of the Founding Fathers. However, the economists have a lot to offer and I think the last major economist I could try to bring in would be Murray Rothbard but I need to find more people I can collaborate with. I’m pretty maxed out at the moment and will be for some time.
Thomas Sowell, unfortunately, is “too new” of an author and nothing is public domain. I have no moves I can make.
One thing that’s good though is, while audio books are not popular with everybody if given the choice, they open the doors for others who just don’t have the time nor the inclination.
And in small instances, (I virtually never bring this up) there’s visual impairment. A blind person has no other recourse but to potentially listen to one of these LibriVox recordings as many are not offered commercially. We have the only exclusive version anywhere. Having exclusivity partially explains why in some instances our download numbers are very high.
The thing about recordings is, the type and form of recordings go away. Books are substantial. Virtual books can also be edited. I’ll stick with books, they can always be recorded in the future, but recordings once destroyed are gone.
I really appreciate this sentiment. The thing of it is, we do need people who are going to operate as “clay pots”, where the information is protected in its original and uneditable form for future generations. Only a printed book can accomplish that.
The unfortunate side effect though is that you turn yourself into an island. Nobody knows what you know and you can’t entirely share it because your goal remains protecting that written object. It’s a self-imposed isolation.
It also relies upon a huge “if”, and that “if” is “Is this book a target for modification/deletion anyways?”
I’ll give you four different competing “thought profiles” to demonstrate:
Person 1:
Person #1 holds a small number of books in their hand. Using said books, person 1 has a maximum amount of people they can teach and unless you’re planning on giving that book away and then that person becomes the teacher, what is your reach? 5 to 10 people? 100 if you’re lucky?
A school teacher would be an exception to this rule because every year they receive 10-30 new students per class session in succession but you can still quickly see the math limitation. 10 years? 30 students? 300 people. Where there’s semester divisions the number would increase but it still has a limit.
There’s giving copies of books away. Good job, now let’s add up your personal co$t. You run into the limit of the other $ide. Yes, the dollar signs.
Person 2:
Person #2 recorded a LibriVox audio book (or worked with others) which has reached 9000+ downloads. The book I have in mind is a Benson Lossing book, 56 biographies of the 56 signers. It has been a little slower than I had expected it to be.
https://archive.org/details/signersofthedeclaration_2501_librivox
Not only is this more people reached than person 1 but it has a multiplier because it has the possibility for unlimited shares. Try sharing 1 book with 2 people at the exact same time, that is impossible. If you gave the book to Mike then you actually aren’t giving it to Barbara - physical objects don’t work that way.
Lossing’s book is at a low danger of being deleted or modified.
Person 3:
Person #3 also recorded but its reached 80,000+ downloads.
With respect to “islandification”(I know I made that word up) with how much success can one teach others and how fast can one teach others? Does what you know make you unique because you’re the only one? Or are you starting to build strength in numbers because there’s a vehicle for sharing that has almost no limits. Even if you have a friend without an internet connection, if you’re truly THAT motivated about it you can download the mp3s and give them a copy on usb so they can listen with their player or phone.
Teach enough people and you aren’t an island anymore. Now you’re a continent.
Person 4:
Person #4 hoards books and doesn’t even bother teaching. Their reach is an effective zero. Given that we all know about indoctrination in schools, yes, having reach is important to combat the falsehoods in the schools. “all hands on deck” means do not be person #4 we are in an emergency.
I myself want to be the most like person #3, so that is what I do. It is true that “the content” itself is going to drive some popularity, my Frederick Douglass on YouTube is now up over 200,000 views so that’s actually pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NNBIMYGtLo But that is only one item. Douglass’ work is also at low risk for deletion or modification.
What if there was a person 5?
Person #5 has produced dozens of audio books whether by direct recording or by coordination with others, each with an average of 15,000 downloads. All of them are for free in the public domain.
Maybe some of these books and audio books might get edited or destroyed, but not all of them. Most of these audio books will last longer than my natural human lifespan, so I can continue to teach even after I am dead.
...
The types of works I’m usually looking at, either based mainly in the context of the Founding Fathers, or in context of the Progressives in the Progressive Era, are in both instances at a low risk for modification/deletion. Ironically enough the Progressive books are probably more at risk because the Progressives don’t want us knowing who they are which is why I’ve run into their books with targeted pages ripped out of them, the same page #s.
To that extent there are a small select number of books I also own copies of but that is only until copyright runs out and then I can get rid of them after I make them into audio.
The one I’ll never get rid of is a book written by Stuart Chase. I’ve seen many with the pages ripped out from around 90-105 IIRC. That specific set of pages is very damaging to progressivism and so they went out and targeted it. There is probably now more copies of that book in existence with the same set of missing pages than there are that book fully intact. I can’t know for sure but its a lot.
Again, I do appreciate your idea of being basically a clay pot where the information is protected, but I think on a book by book examination most are not at risk to begin with. There’s more value in teaching a generation and correcting the damage done by progressives during the last 125 years. Books want to be used and these authors still want to “be heard”.
I bookmarked the site. I didn’t see an email address, though. I would like to get in touch if I find books in that category. I have in the past but recycled them through the book boxes that are set up around town.
Easiest would be just to send me a message here about an old book, I’m not going anywhere.
I appreciate any recommendations you may have in the future.
You are correct, but the founding documents of our Country, has the BIG clay pot of documents. From there copies are made, downloaded and saved. With those writings, they are as you call it, no longer an island, but a continent. The many access through electronics, I am that clay pot. Never knowing if I reached anyone. Just an original source with built in receipts. Like my familes original Encyclopedia Brittanica reads differently than digital copies. The only way we can know this is having originals.
You are right, the reach is limited, my life is finite. There is just something about holding a book in your hands, turning pages, and the smell. Even the sound of turning pages, brings a joy.
Again, you are right. Libraries will fall, not all. Now they are homeless centers to keep warm. In ten years, they will have beds in them too. Without the love of the printed word, digital will be all.
I rage against the storm, knowing it is futile.
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