The goal is the journey
Reading in the age of distraction
Reading is in decline. As ever. But to me this is not a surprise. Today we have too many things that demand our attention. It is the opposite of when the novel was on the rise in the 19th century where Victorians got more and more time on their hands. Novels, magazines, and newspapers flourished. Now, these media need to compete with the alluring, attention-drawing devices of the modern age: "We live in an era in which there is too much information but not enough knowledge, and even less wisdom," says Elif Shafak, author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World and The Island of Missing Trees in The Guardian.
Novels don't keep up with the pacing of the internet, the reels, the shorts, the silent humming of feeds. I tell my students that when you really want to understand, you really want to master something, you need to slow down. Give it time, just like quality food. You need space to transfer information, gain insight, and become knowledgeable. But time has become a valuable currency and the fear of missing out on the humming is ever present.
I usually notice when I have too many things on my mind, too many projects and obligations, that LinkedIn comment that demands a reaction. I can't sit down and read a book or I catch myself red-handed skimming or even skipping lines while I’m reading. Books are the barometer of my stress. The way I read warns me.
This month I have read the splendid Reading Lessons by Carol Atherton (more about this book next Flight). Atherton shows how books, novels, stories, are the mirror to our lives. They offer discoveries into ourselves, journeys we are reluctant to undertake. We rather escape using the digital bypass. We have become more afraid of the world and ourselves as there are less certainties. But when we slow down, we will notice those certainties, though in flux, were only blurred because we were just moving too fast.
Shafak notices more young people are at her book meetings and in my experience there are still many young avid readers. When testing students during their final literature oral exam, I can see with many students reading has done something to them. Not all, but still, many. A lot of teenagers like reading. If they could find the time. If they could put their unrest at ease.
Reading has to find its place in an ever changing world. It might become less, but that does not mean we should despair. At school, we should open doors. Explain how to read reflectively, discourage listening to audiobooks at 1.5x speed, but offer room to slow down and let the stories sink in. This is one of the reasons I am experimenting with Reading Journals: creating way stations to decelerate and deliberate with oneself about the story.
We also need to tell more about books, connect them to real life issues and struggles. We need to understand novels and our students to do a bit of matchmaking. We need to share our own reading experiences and bring our current reads to class. Reading might be a solitary activity, novels are a shared experience. It is our job to teach our students to pause, to slow down, and go on a journey, because people have always been curious travellers.