Reading is "Lonely" - Technology is "Social"

I was reading in my Poets & Writers magazine about how reading is in decline. (I would give appropriate citation – but the mag. is at work – an indication of how I kill time at work…). What the article failed to mention was: why does this decline matter? Who cares if people read?

As I talked with Frances about this topic, I was forced to realize that I don’t really know why it matters whether people read or not. I have my own biases about reading because I have (finally) found joy in it. I stopped reading as a teenager because reading was forced upon me in school. I couldn’t get “into” the books/stories – in fact, I didn’t even see them as stories, but rather, as only mere school assignments. This disdain for being forced to read specific material kept me from being an English major for two years. In essence, I had better things to do – like write.

That’s the other thing this article brought up – reading is in decline, while writing is at a seemingly all-time high. Not only do we have a plethora of books in a bookstore (even all those in a library – my goodness), but now we have the advantage of self-publishing – of blogging – of emailing.

With technology, we have the advantage of having an online voice or persona. We have the notion that we finally exist somewhere in this mass of humanity (which is why, Sy Parrish (perhaps a play on the word “perish”) in One Hour Photo explains that we take pictures – to show someone that we existed AND that we mattered to someone else. I believe the same can be said for the act of writing.) Writing gives us the ability to take a snapshot of something important to us, while allowing us to be in the snapshot – as author, as subject, as perceiver, as a human voice.

I fear I have much more to say on this – and my blog is getting a bit long – which proves problematic for those struggling to catch up with their OWN reading for their OWN blog writing. Who will read my blog? I mean, really read my blog – and care about what I have to say? I certainly admit – I haven’t been able to devote fair attention to my fellow class blog authors. But instead of reading what others have to say this morning, I’m writing – writing to be heard. Writing to be a social and classroom participant.

So, this Poets & Writers magazine mentions why reading might be on the decline – because it is lonely. I never thought about this before. Instead, I always thought about how people resist reading because it takes work (and for those who don’t read – it really does take some effort). And THIS was why it concerned me that people didn't read - because it seems like their brains go into atrophy from lack of use.

Now, my concern has shifted. I still believe it is worthwhile to "work the brain" - but I also now worry that we are falling prey to our mere "notion" that we are social - that we are only making ourselves more isolated and consequently, more lonely.

To be a reader, one must be a receiver of something created, not a creator. To read, one does the activity alone. While I am writing alone, I am writing for social purposes - in effort to connect.

Thus, we have irony. Technology seems to have made us all busier because it has made things more accessible to us. We seem to have no time for anything (as it is, I got up at 4:30 this morning to write an email to a colleague (again, to be social) and to write this blog!)

Yet, I have this notion that technology allows us to “perceive” that we are social and connected. Myspace, for instance, allows for us to connect with old friends, meet new friends, keep in touch with family, etc. The fact that we can see (especially with younger Myspace participants) how one person has over 150 “friends” shows how social we feel we are, how important we are to others, and how technology has allowed for us to “feel” this way. Yet, we never talk on the phone. We find it hard to meet friends for lunch or dinner. As this comic so appropriately shows:

I’m seeing how technology allows us to be very egocentric. We can maintain a superficial idea that we are social, that we are connected, when really, what we are most intimate with – is our machine. I touch a machine more than anything else all day. My machine allows me to be social when I want and how I want.



The word social no longer means in the company of a physical society. It now means being in a representation of society.

When everyone has a voice, suddenly no one has a voice... except their OWN.

Never have I felt so alone.