I have just published the last volume of a big novel.
The other day, in a crowded subway car, two out of three people were reading it.
All of a sudden I had to urinate. I opened my eyes. I dreamed. Damn.
Fall
The next day, I was really on the metro. I observed. Not a book. Only noses immersed in small screens.
A friend returning from an all-inclusive resort told me that around the swimming pool, he hadn’t seen many books.
At university, in recent years, I found it difficult to escape the impression that my students were reading less and less and found all the texts too long.
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They also found it increasingly difficult to understand what they read when it was even the slightest bit complex.
Wanting to test my prejudices, I looked for scientifically validated data.
Do young people read less than before if they don’t have to? If so, is it serious?
What does reading for pleasure mean, what does it change?
French researcher Michel Desmurget, specializing in cognitive neuroscience, studied all these questions, notably reviewing the masses of available data.
Young people read, he says, but what do they read most of all? What school imposes, magazines too, but above all, above all, the words and sentences on recreational screens: Instagram, TikTok, video games, comments from others, etc.
What is in free fall is reading for pleasure, therefore not imposed, of a specific product: the traditional book.
Obviously, there are differences depending on the environment.
Should we be worried about this fall? Absolutely.
A young person’s humanity, he says, is based on three pillars: they must develop their intellectual skills, learn to manage their emotions and build their ability to relate to others.
No other leisure activity offers as many simultaneous benefits on these three levels as reading books.
From this point of view, they are difficult to replace, or even irreplaceable.
The book increases vocabulary, therefore the ability to speak and write with richness and nuance.
It increases general culture and creativity.
It promotes empathy, because we meet people who are different from us.
All this has repercussions on grades, and therefore on academic success, a fairly strong indicator of subsequent professional success.
School plays an important role, but that of the family is crucial, because children tend to imitate their parents.
The exceptions do not invalidate the major trends.
And today’s non-readers, Desmurget emphasizes, will be tomorrow’s teachers.
Stupidity
Discuss this and there will always be a smart fake, believing himself to be avant-garde, who will say: why bother reading to learn if all I have to do is press a button and someone will give me the answer?
He does not realize his loss of freedom, his dependence on the machine, and that this response is perhaps not the only possible one.
Above all, he doesn’t realize that he is fueling our collective stupidity.