I think one of the bigger discouragements to reading that doesn't get mentioned in the article is the absolute torrent of bullshit still being slopped into print. Malcolm Gladwell and Yuval Noah Harari are what pass for public intellectuals. Popular fiction feels more simplistic and less thoughtfully written. Why commit to spending hours reading a book when it'll turn out that the author didn't do their research or the plot ends up being nonsensical?

[–] Saymaz@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

In a proper civilized society, the self-help & productivity writers will be laughed at for copy-pasting random psychology experiments from wikipedia instead of becoming best-selling authors.

[–] BodyBySisyphus@hexbear.net 5 points 4 months ago

I feel like the large numbers of people reading that stuff are not exactly reaping the benefits of literacy