From the very second I learned to read, I’ve been hooked. There was just something about these little shapes on paper, how they corresponded to a larger-than-life human experience of understanding. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to have access to amazing written works that continue to challenge me and broaden my view of the world. I would even say they taught me thoughtfulness and empathy: the skills of intellectual and interpersonal patience that would end up so crucial to me as I grew up.
Reading also taught me the art of critical thinking, critique, and skepticism. At the time, I didn’t realize how useful those skills would become. In my early years of reading, modern technology and media were still developing to their new peak capabilities. Now, they spread information instantaneously across the world via social media and creating new informational ecosystems for our participation and consumption.
A lot has changed since that time of childhood innocence. Namely, the rise of short-form video content and the democratization of a space that was traditionally occupied by legacy media. With this change, a lack of cited sources and a massive increase in the spread of misinformation have become apparent.
The impacts are topics that we bring up in everyday conversation. For example, a lowered attention span that prevents us from taking time to engage meaningfully with what we see. The most prevalent content on social media takes on an audio or visual form, continuously playing ahead of you in contrast with the entirely self-paced progression of reading. You can ingest more content while paying less attention. This is worsened by digital misinformation in a new age of equality of information. Both well-researched analysis and complete nonsense are competing for the same platform, with the only predictor of performance being whether the content aligns with what people want to hear or not.
Confirmation bias has overtaken the online space, from fandom spaces to political discussions. “Stan culture” can create communities dedicated to specific media programs and public personalities. People in these communities are so invested in whatever or whoever they “stan” that they become unable to clearly consider any criticism that may arise against whoever they support.
Given a lack of online fact checking across platforms, with Meta recently announcing it would end its third-party fact-checking program, people are encouraged to believe whatever it is they want to believe. Even in the face of objective evidence, people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.
On Twitter, this phenomenon is so well-known that it’s sometimes referred to as the “waffles tweet,” in reference to a tweet by @BravoCoolee that reads in part: “You can say ‘I like pancakes’ and somebody will say ‘So you hate waffles?’”
In response to this trend, I recommend the hobby that has changed my life and made me into the person I am. Read! Read challenging texts that you disagree with, along with heartening pieces that will inform the way you live your life—whether fiction or nonfiction, academic or creative. Reading presents us with complete arguments to dissect, rather than out-of-context snippets or distortions. It inspires us to consult the source material in an effort to understand others’ claims and fit them into our own perspectives. Most of all, it gives us a more fulfilling alternative to the easy, mindless content consumption of this new informational era.