In the time it takes to read this article, you could deal with 25 tweets, upload several photos to Instagram, interact with your friends via text message, or resolve any of a plethora of other issues that might cause your mobile device to buzz.
The trend is toward immediate gratification in our communications with each other. We receive a text message, and the phone buzzes. We reply immediately. A tweet comes through, and a banner comes across the top of the phone, again rewarding us with an immediate buzz. We swipe the tweet open and tap the star to favorite it—buzz. It takes little effort to deal with these constant interruptions, even hundreds of times a day, and it gives an artificial sense of belonging.
People often send links to articles by these means, and many people visit those web pages. The Nielsen Groupfound that 16 percent of people read the articles word for word. Most scan the text. Many refuse to scroll down and see only whatever entered their field of view on a 4-inch diagonal screen. There are many diversions in terms of how we relate to text.
As Trumpet columnist Brad Macdonald observed in “The Perils of Screen Addiction (and How to Beat It),” this “is changing the way our brains work, the way we absorb and digest information, the quality of our thinking—and ultimately, the nature of our lives.”
Does your reading have real depth? There has been a general shift in our culture, away from thinking deeply, away from focusing on important things. One way to counter this effect is by reading stimulating material. In other words, read great books!
First, though, you have to prepare your mind. My son might love his Frog and Toad stories, but how would he react if I started reciting Shakespearean soliloquies at bedtime? His mind isn’t prepared for that. Students often receive books they are simply not ready for, not because these books aren’t age appropriate, but because the students didn’t do enough reading at their level while they were younger. As a child starts out with those first books with their colorful pictures and rhyming text, he or she is developing a lifelong habit, but he is also passing a checkpoint.
Imagine if the first book you ever read was a Sherlock Holmes story. They are fun, engaging stories—you should definitely read them—but consider the route you might take getting there. I remember reading Encyclopedia Brownstories while I was still young; I read Hardy Boys novels when I was a little older. By the time I encounteredSherlock Holmes stories, I had approached that level of reading gradually—even within the mystery genre.
You can, then, immediately see why so many people think William Shakespeare’s plays are boring: the mind simply hasn’t been prepared for it. A combination of limited vocabulary and weak reading background denies you the greatest playwright of all time! When you don’t understand the material in front of you, it is boring.
The solution is not, as so many students believe, to read as little as possible. It is to find books that you enjoy at your current level, and then gradually increase that level over time. When you do read your first Shakespearean play, I recommend Julius Caesar, which has some of the greatest speeches of all time and a gripping plot. You should consider buying a No Fear edition that gives you a modern English translation next to the main text for your first time out. Don’t worry about it if parts of the play don’t engage you. Mark the parts that you do find moving—and think about them.
The Apostle Paul talked about this principle of increasing the richness of our experience over time, saying that he fed the Corinthians with milk because they would not have been able to bear the meat (1 Corinthians 3:2). As time went on, the Corinthians didn’t go after God’s truth the way they should have, and they still required milk!
Though the direct application here is spiritual, the metaphor can be applied to many areas—music, athletics and certainly reading.
When you do develop that love for literature over time, you gain Shakespeare. You gain George Orwell (read Animal Farm) and Ernest Hemingway (Old Man and the Sea) and dozens of other famous authors that so many deny themselves in our instant gratification culture. Your progress will be evident. When you read that next Shakespearean play—try Henry V—you won’t need the No Fear edition.
So start with a book that you find interesting; those Sherlock Holmes short stories might be a good starting point. If mysteries don’t get your imagination sleuthing, try George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, the inspiration for My Fair Lady. The point is, start somewhere! Then walk a little further down the road, and read something else. Before you know it, you will understand why having your fingers pressed into the spine of a book yields greater rewards than having a phone buzz incessantly in your shirt pocket.