Attributing value

August 29th., at home

I was reading an article the other day, by a writer I respect, about the decline of reading. Essentially the author was saying that increased reliance on the use of electronic devices, coupled with an apparent decline in attention spans, results in people being less likely to read a book. He bemoaned the impact on literature and, incidemtally, on those persons who are consequently "deprived" of the intellectual (and moral?) benefit of exposure to great books. Coincidentally I noted on the same day a report that the main social media platform has noted a decline in use as more people, especially young people prefer to use alternatives which are image based. I felt angry and in some sense aggrieved; after all much of my sense of self is wrapped up in my life-long love of reading. Then I started to reflect.

So what if reading were to become obsolete? Two hundred years ago few people could read anyway, so arguably it is a short-lived phase significant only in the absence of "better" ways of communicating. Why is my instinctive response to attribute more value to reading than say watching a movie, or going to the pub, or attending a football match? Viewed objectively it seems to me that all activities ( once the basics of life are obtained) become simply ways of marking time. Probably in the early stages of human evolution a greater proportion of time was necessary to sustain life, and less spare time was available, but even then there was the necessity to mark time by sleeping, grooming, making things, reinforcing social relationships. Did any of these have more or less value? I think not. Nor do the things we do today. It is important for me to read because I enjoy it and it makes me feel better, but no value accrues.

So long as an individual's activities have no harmful effect on others it is not for me to sneer.