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Comment by GeoAtreides | Hacker News Reader

They just don't make readers, period. Between netflix, tiktok, games, discord and everything else in people's life, who's reading anymore?

Sure, some will read the random wattpad smut, or isekai royalroad story, or the random fanfic; but that's the equivalent of eating soda for dinner: feels good in the moment, bloats you up and it's completely devoid of any nutrition whatsoever. Also messes up the mouth and stomach bacterial ecosystem.

And so no one puts in the hours, nobody puts in the effort and dedication to build taste and to build the necessary mental stamina for difficult readings. To read becomes a very niche activity, like calligraphy, or drawing. A gaping hole widens in mankind's soul and there's nothing that would fill it up again.

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As Mark Twain said the one who can read and chooses not to, has no advantage over those who can’t read at all. This sadly reflects in our current politically morass imo.

Reading didn't decline as much as you imply here. Reading was "niche" even 20 years ago.

Likely because of TV. People watched TV like crazy. I doubt reading was niche in the times of radio & cinema.

Let me put this way: I am way older than 20 years ago, I grew up in a different cultural zeitgeist. Reading was definitely not niche then. And it was much more widespread and much more in-depth when the dopamine dispensaries of today didn't exist.

You can put it any way you like, but we know that the US book market is about the same size as what it was 20 years ago [1]. So reading decliced as much as book prices increased. Unless you're talking about another country, of course.

[1]: https://ideas.bkconnection.com/10-awful-truths-about-publish... It assumes book price trend = CPI, but I don't buy it. Recreational books are one of the few things that have become cheaper [2], likely due to e-books.

[2]: https://www.in2013dollars.com/Recreational-books/price-infla...

That means people still buy books, not that they still read. What percentage of people who bought Atomic Habits got past the first chapter? Completion rate may have been very different 20 years ago.

Our ambitious and boundary pushing Gor, their degenerate Omegaverse

our time of high culture, their era of decadence

at least the omegaverse is not formulaic to the hilt

and also has actual smut

Everyone who ever read that stuff needs the Larry Garfield treatment...

Maybe it's an American problem? It sure has declined over the years but I was surprised by the amount of people walking around with books while visiting central Europe this year.

I can confirm this. For several years I resisted getting a smartphone. When I finally relented, I immediately stopped reading books. After all, surfing the web is far more satisfying for the dopamine receptors. On the Internet, everything is split into bite-sized pieces. Just enough to satisfy a short attention span.

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