Decius wrote:
Jello wrote:
Intelligence is going down as fewer and fewer books are being read (news flash: the printed book industry is on the way out unless this trend stops),
This sort of hand wringing about books is the clarion call of the luddite. Books are a media. There are other media. The idea that books are a media that is intellectually superior to other media is something that children were told in the 70's when their choices were reading or watching television. The idea here was that if you taught children to read novels that they would be better equiped to read news papers, research papers, reference books, and technical books when they grew up.
People who are still clinging to the superiority of novels, particularly in the context of adults and not children, don't know what they are talking about. In the wake of online communications this belief is totally bunk. The value of novels isn't inherent. The value of reading is what is important. The internet offers lots of things to read and a lot people who spend time reading the internet are reading. Its literacy that is important and not books. The one does not require the other.
Fortunately, this particular luddic screed dropped the typical waxing on about the smell of books or the way that paper feels, but its no different. The problem is the presumption that you can't learn anything useful from other media. Thats just wrong.
