To think being a reader doesn't make you better or smarter?

This is the weight loss 'community' in a nutshell as well 😆

"I suspect it's the other way around.
Being more intelligent makes people more likely to be readers."

Yes, I think it might be this as well.

I suspect it's the other way around.

Being more intelligent makes people more likely to be readers. But clearly not reading a lot doesn't mean someone can't be intelligent. There are intelligent people who didn't get taught to read after all.

Lots of people on here seem to feel reading makes them better informed, which makes sense. Maybe you get that from other things OP? There could be all sorts of reasons why you're not into reading. And it doesn't make you a better or worse person.

I think being a reader has broadened my horizons and increased my knowledge and given me a wider vocabulary, however I don't think that it makes me better than non readers.

Some readers like to look down on other readers and think they are superior to them because they think their choice of books is trashy or because they read on an Kindle instead of reading a real book or lots of other reasons.

Don't take any notice of book snobs OP.

I can't imagine life without books and I would feel (slightly) bad that someone doesn't understand that pleasure, but don't feel superior in any way - maybe that is what OP's colleague was thinking? Reading has so many positive benefits for the brain, wellbeing and seeing things from another's perspective that, hopefully, brings empathy. Obviously depends upon the type of books you read!

Grr, Charlotte Brontë not Jane Austen - I am not following my own advice today 😂

"Yeah, but where from?"

Wherever anyone else learns it. I know it's a fabric possibly from cookery programmes or magazines or hearing other people say the word.

I'm a reader. I definitely don't think it makes me "better or smarter" than other people.

TBH, I think that's something that people who don't read project onto others, not the other way around.

I've always read. It was just normal in my (extremely working class, not particularly well educated parents, mostly lived in poverty) childhood home. We didn't have a lot of money, didn't have the games consoles my friends had, there were six kids and one TV. Books were just the best available thing I could entertain myself with. That and drawing/colouring. So that's what I did.

I didn't realise until adulthood that not everyone reads and that reading is seen as some sort of highbrow pursuit by some. To me, it's just normal and I don't sit there with a book feeling all superior, I just get on with it.

I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make - my point was that some of my friends had never heard of it and some had heard of it and thought it was off the tv.

I’m pretty confident that if they were more widely read they would have at least recognised it as a Charlotte Bronte novel. I can’t imagine going through life not at least knowing about classical literature, even if I haven’t read them.

And I think it’s really quite a shame that they have next to no knowledge of Charlotte Bronte.

well of course people who read would agree d'uh!

" That's what all the AI says"

For kids and teens, it's useful as helps them absorb how to construct sentences well. For adults who can already do that - I don't know if it's really useful. An interesting question!

I think you might have been a voracious reader, as well as a vociferous one if you read out loud a lot, @Mamma28383

In my 40s, I don't know anyone who watches Love Island.
However, I don't know the 7 wonders either. I can guess the Pyramids, but not sure about the others.

You can get rubbish in books as well.
You have to be selective and critical in your reading whether it's in books or online, but the most recent information will be online before it is printed.

I do think that if you took two people of equivalent intelligence, the person who read would have an advantage over someone who hardly read at all. Watching a tv adaptation of a Dickens novel, however well done, will not give the same deep experience as reading it, and I think many of those who do Readalongs on the books page would agree.

A PP mentioned the Internet being more up to date. Well, the value of that very much depends on who is doing the updating.

If you have children, reading, as a parent will definitely make your children smarter. There are so many studies showing that reading with children from babies to older has so many benefits, not just language, but managing emotions, regulating, and calming, focus and bonding. All homes with children should be filled with books and children should see parents reading books, not their phones, as they will copy. Reading definitely improves educational outcomes, job prospects and ultimately life chances. So yes reading does make you smarter all through your life.

I think reading definitely exposes you to a wider vocabulary, ideas, cultures. I was a vociferous reader when I was young. When I compare myself to DH who was not a big reader, I can see it has made me more well read, more aware of lots of subjects, but not necessarily a deep knowledge of them unless I read about them intensely. I also have a terrible memory for books - I’ve forgotten so many I read.

Whereas DH is less well read but he’s still very knowledgable, opinionated, book smart, highly intelligent in maths and science (we did the same degree and he was much more of a natural) and good and processing that knowledge and explaining it to others.

I do think DH lacks a lot of emotional intelligence and I do better on that score.

So I don’t think being well read makes you more intelligent than others because there are so many ways of being in the intelligent, but it probably increases your own capacity of knowledge and ideas and ways of thinking.

I would say it's true in my demographic, which is 30s, sadly.

I’m a reader and don’t think I’m better or smarter. Though given some of the books I read I guarantee I know more words to describe a penis than most non-readers!

I think being a fiction reader has broadened my horizons by making made me aware of ways of living and being, other than my own and the people I know and of things I would have had no idea about otherwise. It's given me some "magpie knowledge" which can be handy in a pub quiz, lol.

Yeah.

Conspiracy theories are everywhere on the internet.

Exactly.
I haven't read any Dickens, but of course I know the names of the most famous ones and have seen some of them on TV. If someone said they'd never heard of Oliver Twist, I'd find it hard to believe.

Yeah, but where from?

Muslin and a muslin are really different things.

Muslin is the fabric. A muslin is a nappy thing for mopping up sick. Made of muslin tho