America's Decline in Literary Reading: Grappling with Technology's ...

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42 The electronic media...tend to be torpid. Despite the existence of good television, fine writing on the internet, and video games that test logic, the electronic media by and large invite inert reception. One selects channels, but then the information comes out preprocessed. (1) Solomon asserts that electronic media offer passive forms of entertainment but also admits that the internet, videogames, and some forms of “good television” don’t necessarily fit this description. He gives slight credit to a few virtues of electronic media, but perhaps not enough credit where credit is due. It is true that television is a passive form of entertainment. The viewer typically sits in front of the screen and absorbs, as Solomon would put it, “preprocessed” information that for the most part doesn’t require much thought. Conversely, reading requires active engagement and submerges the reader into an alternate environment where the imagination takes control, only guided by the words on the page. Is this active participation, this submersion in an environment mediated by print, what the critics find most important about reading? If so, some videogames can be shown to involve this same form of intellectual submersion. Many role-playing games require the player to solve intricate puzzles in order to advance through a deep plot. Much as books capture our concentration and bring us to a different place within the mind, video games can bring the player into an active and dynamic world where thought is required to solve complicated puzzles. The player isn’t simply passively viewing as is done when watching TV; he or she is actively participating in an expansive environment where reasoning and quick decision making predominate. Obviously some games require more thinking than others. Some games are more akin to sports, testing reflex and concentration but not necessarily logic. However, other video game genres such as role-playing and strategy games can be shown to promote logical thought, and therefore stimulate intelligence. In fact, a recent study done by the Economic and Social Research Council shows that videogames, if played in moderation, may improve intelligence in young children (“Do Video Games,” 2004, para. 1). From my childhood, I can distinctly remember being lost in the complicated and mysterious world of Myst, an immensely successful videogame from the early nineties. In order to reveal the secrets of the “mystifying” environment, players had to solve puzzles, some involving mathematics, others involving clues picked up along the path. These are puzzles that Granted, video games may not offer precisely the same experience as books, and certainly they should not replace books. Rather, they offer another way to enter into an imagined world. I never would have encountered outside of a videogame, and I have found that such games made an impression on my thinking at a young age. Granted, video games may not offer precisely the same experience as books, and certainly they should not replace books. Rather, they offer another way to enter into an imagined world. They are similar to books in this respect but offer tradeoffs in the type of thinking that is required. When reading, the imagination is called upon to translate words into ideas, concepts, and images. Playing a videogame requires active problem solving and, though to a lesser extent, imagination and conceptualization. Perhaps some forms of digital media that the critics are so ready to condemn have virtues akin to those associated with literary reading. Nevertheless, backed by statistics from Reading at Risk suggesting that those who read literature are more likely than those who do not to participate in social activities and even politics, Solomon goes even further in his critique, characterizing the rise of technology and the subsequent decline in reading as a political detriment: Without books, we cannot succeed in our current struggle against absolutism and terrorism. The retreat from civic to virtual life is a retreat from engaged democracy, from the principles that we say we want to share with the rest of the world....So the crisis in reading is a crisis in national politics. (2) But does the internet truly result in a “retreat from engaged democracy” as Solomon says? Could it not be, rather, an incredible asset to democracy? Solomon may be right in saying that reading is important to democracy, as reading is fundamental to communication and knowledge of our world. But is there really a difference between the civic and virtual life that Solomon speaks of? Civic life has made our country what it is today, and is invaluable to any society. But why can’t “virtual life” be civic life? Assuming that Solomon is talking about the internet when he refers to “virtual life,” what would he make of political blogs, message boards, and a myriad of independent news organizations that allow many Americans to voice an opinion and that provide a variety of resources from which information can be drawn? The internet is a democratic bazaar that informs the citizenry, can potentially give nearly every individual a voice, and provides a medium for diverse discussion of political issues. Take for instance the insight gained from the Iraqi who blogged throughout our strike on Baghdad, or the
The internet is a democratic bazaar that informs the citizenry, can potentially give nearly every individual a voice, and provides a medium for diverse Customer reviews, personalized book lists, and an almost unlimited supply of books give the user something of a virtual “social” environment in which great books can quickly and easily be found, ordered, and read. Internet booksellers can provide, as Solomon would put it, an online “kinship in the sharing of books” (2). high school students who started a political blog in which people from around the world discussed matters of politics. Contrary to Solomon’s suspicions, these resources are engaging average citizens in democracy in a way never before possible rather than causing a “retreat from engaged democracy.” Just as books are vital to our “struggle against absolutism and terrorism,” these digital sources of information can provide us with information that is drawn from a multitude of voices from diverse backgrounds. Since the internet is uncontrolled, it is somewhat of a refuge from absolutism and gives the user an international arena in which diverse ideas can be exchanged freely. In a sense, what could be more democratic than the internet? It is somewhat commonplace for scholars to criticize, often times unfairly, forms of “digital media.” But regardless of the benefits that the internet, video games, and other forms of digital media offer, the fact remains that literary reading is important to our society. Literary reading is a primary way in which ideas and new perspectives are communicated and tested, and it engages the reader in imaginative, speculative thought. Without discounting the tremendous value of literary reading, then, is it somehow possible for literary reading and digital media to coexist, and could digital media perhaps even promote literary reading? One way many believe literary reading can be made more popular is by figuring it as a communal endeavor. Solomon, for instance, offers this strategy: We need to make reading, which is in its essence a solitary endeavor, a social one as well, to encourage the great thrill of finding kinship in shared experiences of books. We must weave reading back into the very fabric of the culture, and make it a mainstay of community. (1) Although reading is on the decline, social reading has been an effective tool in helping to re-popularize literature. The success of Oprah’s book club shows how communal reading can get more people reading fiction, even if this fiction isn’t always of the highest quality. Similarly, I think that technology can help to popularize literature. Internet booksellers, such as Amazon.com, have already begun to create an online “book society” with their marketing strategies. Amazon.com builds a database of the books the consumer has purchased and, based on these books, suggests other similar books a particular reader might enjoy. Further, it links together people with similar tastes and allows for the exchange of reading lists. Customer reviews, personalized book lists, and an almost unlimited supply of books give the user something of a virtual “social” environment in which great books can quickly and easily be found, ordered, and read. Internet booksellers can provide, as Solomon would put it, an online “kinship in the sharing of books” (2). Much as civic life can be extended to virtual life, a form of social reading can be extended to cyberspace. Juliet Gardiner, in her article “Reformulating the Reader: Internet Bookselling and Its Impact on the Construction of Reading Practices,” elaborates on the internet bookselling phenomenon: What is happening in Internet bookselling ...is an attempt to commodify another social practice, the so-called ‘word of mouth’ phenomenon by which ‘personal recommendations’...are ‘posted’ in simulacra through readers’ star ratings and reader reviews that accompany the description of the book in question. (167) Amazon devised a revolutionary e-commerce strategy for selling books by creating such a social word of mouth environment online. Upon entering the Amazon webpage, consumers are greeted with books geared towards their specific tastes, usually based on recommendations and book lists of other readers with similar tastes. It can be hard to ignore such books, books which may be new releases by a favorite author or bestsellers of a preferred genre. If one continues on to the product page of a specific book, it is often easy to be enticed into a purchase. A five star rating system and a list of usually quite detailed user reviews can be enough to convince one to buy a book, even if there was no intention of buying such a book beforehand. This virtual social environment, something of a word of mouth phenomenon, is Amazon’s prime bookselling strategy. And this strategy obviously works, as evidenced by Amazon’s rapid growth from a small garage business in 1995 to one of the world’s largest retailers. And whatever its profit-based motives may be, Amazon doesn’t just get books sold; it gets books read. For me personally, Amazon has been an amazing catalyst for reading and more reading. Growing up in a tiny town in Montana left me with two options for obtaining books: I could either go to our poorly stocked library and try my luck on an old book from a limited selection, or I could drive 70 miles to the nearest bookstore. 43
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