Why reading still matters

Reading may appear less important today because information is available in many other forms. A student can watch an educational video instead of reading a chapter, listen to a podcast while travelling, ask an artificial-intelligence system to explain a difficult concept, or search online for a short answer within seconds. Entertainment has also changed. Instead of reading a novel for several evenings, people can watch a series, scroll through hundreds of short videos, play an interactive game, or listen to an audiobook. These alternatives are not automatically worse than reading, and each medium can be useful for different purposes. However, the existence of faster and more visual forms of information does not remove the value of reading. In fact, reading may become more important when the surrounding information environment becomes faster and more fragmented because it trains the ability to remain with one idea for longer, follow an argument across several pages, notice details, interpret meaning, and create mental images without receiving everything already prepared visually.…