Is reading dangerous?
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According to one study, reading catalyzes bouts of imagination and happiness – distracting the reader from “reality” and vaulting them into another world. The inherent danger, apparently, is that one loses touch and fantasizes about other realms.
Another study suggests that authors are part of a secret conspiracy designed to rock the proverbial boat with ideas and visions which offer alternative paradigms.
According to some “experts”, reading is dangerous as it unsettles established norms, and makes people question mediocrity. The conclusion offered is that those engaging in this activity do so at their own peril.
In the introduction to his American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828, Noah Webster warned that by permitting literacy to drop below the waterline, words could be redefined, so that concepts such as freedom could easily transition to something entirely different, for example “sacrificing some freedom for security”, using the very terms that regulate a democracy as tools of oppression against a population with a limited vocabulary.
Authors would unanimously agree that reading is healthy, and some might even face heinous accusations of outright heresy for suggesting that reading beats rifling through social media …
Article by author, Réal Laplaine
According to one study, reading catalyzes bouts of imagination and happiness – distracting the reader from “reality” and vaulting them into another world. The inherent danger, apparently, is that one loses touch and fantasizes about other realms.
Another study suggests that authors are part of a secret conspiracy designed to rock the proverbial boat with ideas and visions which offer alternative paradigms.
According to some “experts”, reading is dangerous as it unsettles established norms, and makes people question mediocrity. The conclusion offered is that those engaging in this activity do so at their own peril.
In the introduction to his American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828, Noah Webster warned that by permitting literacy to drop below the waterline, words could be redefined, so that concepts such as freedom could easily transition to something entirely different, for example “sacrificing some freedom for security”, using the very terms that regulate a democracy as tools of oppression against a population with a limited vocabulary.
Authors would unanimously agree that reading is healthy, and some might even face heinous accusations of outright heresy for suggesting that reading beats rifling through social media …
Article by author, Réal Laplaine
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Reading is not dangerous per se as long as you continue reading that which supports your ideology - similar to watching news that does the same.If one reads material that is well considered and researched - you may actually learn something that contravenes your world view and causes you to make friends outside of your comfort zone.
Jim puts it very succinctly (I agree on his statements own merits - not because Réal did). I have been taught (indoctrinated) lo these many moons ago that "one has to analyze the writing to derive the authors intent" - you can't just let a tree be beautiful!
The danger of reading becoming a negative tool exists only in the minds of those who insist upon reading something into what the author intended, seeking some hidden agenda, instead of just reading what is actually written.
"The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read."
Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain (Author) 1835 - 1910