I would like to pause for a moment and think about reading—just about reading. Not what device you might use to read. Not the digital vs. analog debate. Not expounding the merits of hybrid devices (e-readers). Just reading.
Reading is important now more than ever. We have entered into an age of rage tweeting, division, tribalism, anger, selfishness, manipulated news and instant gratification.
I would argue that getting back to reading is the solution to this. Reading books won’t fix most of this directly, but I believe that it can do so indirectly. You see, most of the issues on this list have more to do with fast-brain thinking than anything else.
The fast-brain is that reflexive, fast-response part of our brains that’s good at saving our lives when a quick response is needed, but is remarkably bad at sound logic, at reasoning, at deep thought. It is easily tricked by things that sound right if you consider them for an instant, but turn out to be terribly wrong if you spend any time really engaging with them.
In this age of rage tweeting, division, tribalism, anger, selfishness, manipulated news and instant gratification—we’re used to conserving slow-brain energy and using our fast-brains instead.
- Instant gratification is a fast-brain response.
- Selfishness needs to be overcome with thoughtfulness—that is not a fast-brain enterprise.
- Tribalism can be overcome by listening—truly listening—to someone else. Listening takes time. The fast-brain does not do well in this either.
- Division is easier to maintain if one does not consider anything other than immediate needs.
- Rage-tweeting is a fast-brain response to incoming stimuli.
- AI, deep fakes, and unscrupulous news reporting take advantage of fast-brain thinking and hope to hinder our ability to process all available information by bombarding us with lopsided arguments and sources of data. These methods cause us to question how anyone can know what’s true anymore. There’s nothing like anger, rage and a sense of injustice to ensnare people into webs of bitterness and hatred against one another.
- Anger is a result of all the above.
Gazing at the stars slows down the brain, but we don’t do that anymore. We stare at our screens, which simply feed us more of the things that have crippled us in the first place.
Reading may be a solution for some of these things. The list above is really a set of symptoms. These symptoms have many causes, but one of them is overuse of our fast-brain.
Reading a book slows us down.
- It forces us to combat our urge toward instant gratification. You must read the story to get the ending.
- It combats tribalism—often the characters need to grow and stretch. As they do, we can also grow and stretch with them by overcoming natural prejudices and seeing the world as a greater mosaic rather than a simplistic “us” and “them”, pitted against each other.
- It also gives a break from the news and from social media which seem to thrive on filling us with negatives. Negative news monetizes an attack on our mental health and sense of reality, for its own lucrative ends.
Here’s the thing about books. Some books will have errors in them. Actually, most will. Historical fiction often aims to provide a well-researched setting and historical context, but it will not always be truthful. It is fiction, after all—authors imagining what a certain time was like. Making educated guesses.
Most fiction books make things up, so I am not suggesting that these books will tell you the truth. But they can slow us down enough to allow our brains the space to think. To empathize. To process information. To question, really question—not developing conspiracy theories, but in a way that fosters deep, compassionate, meaningful thought.
Spending time in the Scriptures is the ultimate reading. The Bible is full of truth and begs to be read and understood. If we want to do so, we need to spend time in it. We need to spend time with the God of truth. If He is the centre of our lives, we are less likely to spend all our time in fast-brain mode. The more time we spend engaging our slow-brains, the more we can be discerning.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
(Philippians 4:8)
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