Relevance of Reading in the Age of Video Overload

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It was 2 AM. Monday Morning. I was still reading. I started reading this novel in the afternoon on Sunday. It is one of the best novels I have ever read. I continued reading all day Sunday. I only took bio breaks and continued reading till 2 AM on Monday.

I just finished a chapter and had to decide whether to continue reading or sleep and go to college at 8 AM. I could only skip 2 more classes before my attendance would fall below the required 75% for the semester. After careful consideration, I decided to continue reading. After all, I could skip one more day after this. So, I read and finished the book at 2 PM on Monday. Then I went to sleep. Satiated.

The novel that caught my attention enough to make me bunk my classes was “The Fountainhead”. That was the longest I have ever read something continuously. It was 753 pages long and it took me nearly 22 hours to finish reading. I liked it. If you have not read it yet, you should try it too. It was written by Ayn Rand.

This may make you think that I am an avid reader. I was not. I was an aspiring reader. I started inculcating the habit of reading 2 years before that Sunday to improve my English. Being a non-native speaker, English was not something I was good at but it was also something I needed to be good at. So I picked fiction to start with and pushed myself to read a lot.

From the above incident, you might have gathered that I did become good at reading and eventually I improved my English too. But, all this happened almost 12 years ago when I was in my Undergrad. Why am I writing about all this now? I wanted to tell you how much I valued reading and how much I did enjoy it at a certain point in time.

But, Is Reading worth it now? Should TOEFL test our English reading skills? Is it relevant anymore?

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Today, YouTube has it all. Netflix could be our entertainment multiverse. We could learn anything by watching videos. We can spend days binge-watching our favourite TV Shows. People have been propagating that, visual learning could be better than learning by reading. Almost everything you want to enjoy is available in the audio-visual format consuming not just one, but two of our senses. Eyes and ears.

Video format not only explains how something works but also shows you the same in action. What more do we need? Right?

I do not think so. Yes, Video helps us see something that could not be seen by reading. It helps us get immersed in the object of interest by arresting our senses of sound and sight. But, it just does not do one thing as well as reading does.

“Awaken your Imagination“.

Just imagine reading a fantasy novel. There is no limit to your imagination of that fantasy world. You can imagine elephants flying. Dinosaurs dancing. Michael Jackson Meditating. It can be as rich as you want it to be. As fun as you want it to be. In the same vein, reading a self-help book, you can imagine being super successful following the advice from the book.

However, when you watch a video, your imagination is limited by the visuals you see. The storyteller of the video controls the level of thrill you experience. I don’t think it is always bad. Sometimes you do see visual wonders conceived by great minds that could have never come to you in your imagination. But that is where it stops. When you watch the same video the second time, your thrill cannot exceed the first time.

This could probably be one of the reasons why people who read novels that were later made into movies, do not enjoy watching the movie as much as they did reading the novel. The video simply cannot match the different imagination levels of various individuals.

Although, both reading and watching use the sense of sight, they work differently. Reading stimulates the brain in ways that make the brain more active than watching. This is more true when the activity is a leisure activity. A scientific study suggests that Reading can help to keep memory and thinking skills intact, thereby helping stave off Alzheimer‘s in old age.

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So, No Reading is not at all overrated. It is one of the oldest ways of learning and is still a very good way to learn. I want to continue reading. I may use my Paid Time Off at work just to complete a book in future as well. If you have come this far reading this article, I know you have an extremely patient and passionate reader in you. Thanks for reading.

Keep Reading!

Sources: Robert S. Wilson Ph.D., Patricia A. Boyle Ph.D., Lei Yu, Ph.D., et al: “Life-span Cognitive Activity, Neuropathologic Burden, and Cognitive Aging.” Neurology, Vol. 81. 2013.Prashanthi Vemuri, Ph.D., Elizabeth C. Mormino, Ph.D.: “Cognitive Stimulating Activities to Keep Dementia at Bay.” Neurology, Vol 81. 2013