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

My ten year old is like this because of YouTube 🫣 his general knowledge is very impressive. He’s also excellent at spelling, when tested aged 8, his spelling ability was that of a 12 year old…but he really doesn’t do much reading. It’s baffling.

He’s started reading The Hunger Games and I’m hoping that gets him into reading. As much as he’d love to watch Squid Games, I won’t let him until he’s much older! I sold him the hunger games as a type of Squid Games and he’s happy with that 😝

I think those who read about current events on the internet need to check their sources, as a lot of it is fake news, written by people who don’t believe in experts/academics/people with experience in their field. The fact that the current US Health Secretary is not a scientist but someone who spouts completely unproven theories as if they were actual proven facts, is a manifestation of this deliberate embracing of ignorance over facts and knowledge.

I like reading a lot and think I have learned a lot from it, so I'm biased. But to try to answer your question above:

(1) I can read an awful lot faster than I can absorb spoken or video material, so there's just a volume issue.

(2) Until really quite recently it was difficult to watch TV or movies without disturbing others in situations where you have nothing else to do e.g. sitting on a train, waiting for an appointment at the doctor's/dentist/hairdresser. So it's an additional use of "dead" time.

(3) If you think about a film of a book you've read (I know not all films are based on books, but it's an illustrative point so bear with me), it will leave out an awful lot of the description, nuance, dialogue. Books are a denser form of narrative and information.

I can of course remember things that I've learned from TV and, more so, the radio. But the vast majority of my incidental knowledge has been picked up from books - even really unexpected books (I'm always surprised by the number of things I've learned from Agatha Christie novels).

I think the written word is the most efficient means of delivering information, assuming you are lucky enough to have a brain that absorbs information that way.

No they aren’t? The internet is updated constantly with new information. Books go out of date the second anything changes after the publisher has hit print.

I think it's commonly accepted that people who read are smarter. That's what all the AI says anyway.
I don't read (very rarely) either and don't feel personally offended by this as you seem to be though.

"Mhm, I'm sorry but reading widely does make people more aware, interesting and knowledgable."

Reading novels isn't necessarily reading 'widely' though. I think people who read about current issues on the internet are more aware.

Probably going to get flamed for this. But I do think reading displays a level of creative intelligence and imagination that visual mediums like theatre and film don't (I enjoy all three).

Although the book sets the scene, you have to use your imagination to transport yourself within it's pages and bring the characters to life.

Of course, it doesn't mean you aren't intelligent in other ways. I'm a complete thicko about a lot of things that others find simple.

I speak as an avid beyond belief reader and think its MASSIVE intellectual snobbery. Its like people who don't consider it "real" reading if its on a kindle.

"the other poster saying she learned the word muslin [from a book]"

Yes, but she would have learnt it eventually in other ways.

I t doesn't mske you more clever but I have always enjoyed reading and have good general knowledge and sometimes surprise myself with things I know that I have picked up somewhere from reading, as. a child read anything and everything.

I find this quite surprising.

Every person l know knows about the Brontes and Jane Eyre. Even DS. If seems a bit weird that these people have not heard of the book.

Yes it does but doesn’t necessarily have to be books, it can be factual blogs or news articles.

Of course it can make you smarter. This is a fight I used to have with my teen (who has now discovered reading and is obsessed). But it doesn’t have to be books. Good quality newspapers and magazines also help. It widens your vocabulary and you keep learning new things.

"I recently in my friendship group of 6 women mentioned the fact I read Jane Eyre once a year and none of them knew what I was talking about. A couple did say “is that a film?”! They are all intelligent women!"

That's got nothing to do with being a reader of novels or not. Jane Eyre is extremely well known and many people will have heard of it without having ever read it.

When I talk to my students about reading, I talk to them about how much easier it becomes to access life.

Reading regularly improves reading fluency, your analytical skills, your inference and understanding and it improves the standard of your written English too.

My 16 year old regular readers are more articulate and express themselves effectively. They performed better in mock interviews and also find it’s easier to interpret their exam questions.

I believe there are many different types of intelligence so I’m not sure I’d say reading makes you smarter, it’s more nuanced than that.

I don't read novels for pleasure
Scientific journals though I absolutely love reading....

Well read people do tend to seem 'smarter'. Though I don't know if they necessarily are in any meaningful way. I think I'd find someone who isn't very well read a bit of a turn off. But then boasting about it is even worse. As long as you have an inquisitive and open mind, I guess that's more important.

" TV is really dumb now; you have to work hard to find a show that actually takes some brain power."

I totally disagree with that. It's more sophisticated than it ever was. All you have to do is go to a forum discussing a good drama and find the people who didn't understand because they got up to make tea in the middle or whatever.
I've got a book on my shelf (from when I read books!) all about the stuff you can learn from TV.

You could call me a reader, as I read 2 or 3 books a week and listen to even more on Audible, but they are almost without exception rubbish, as I use books to escape from my life and the real world (including world politics), which I don’t want to be reminded of. So I don’t think that counts. I’m afraid I last read using my brains decades ago when I was at university, doing a literature based course.

From my mid-teens until having children at 34, I always had a book (or 3!) on the go.
I would spend hours, and some times an entire day off reading.

I've not read a book from cover to cover for almost 12 years now.

I don't think I'm any more or less bright for it!

It's an interesting point. I do believe in the canon, and I do agree with Harold Bloom that we should be ruthlessly honest about what deserves to get in. But plenty of lighter stuff is incredibly good. My brother did a PhD in literature yet still loves Asterix and Tintin comics. He also reverses P. G. Wodehouse and thinks he is one of the greatest poets in the English language.

Well, Shakespeare's plays are designed to be performed and seen, not read. He is a bit of a slog to read, unless maybe you're seen the play or a film or telly adaptation and know about it already.

If you read about a black hat, each of us will imagine something different- it will depend on how visual our imagination is (how phantasic we are,) and experiences. It might be a bobble hat, top hat, bonnet, bowler, fedora, beret, peaked cap, etc, etc, etc. If you see a black hat on a screen, someone else did all that imagination work. So reading is a different sort of thinking than watching TV

I do think it increases vocabulary and so on - there are some words where I know which book I first learnt it in (soporific from the Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, for example.) That's not to say you can't learn from radio and screens either - I have learnt a lot from all those too. And reading depends to some extent on what you read, just as there's a difference between watching an in-depth documentary or Blankety Blank. Not everything will increase your intellect. But there is plenty of evidence to show that reading does make you smarter. That doesn't mean that watching films won't though.

I think reading widely and frequently undoubtedly does improve vocabulary, linguistic versatility, memory and imagination, general and specific knowledge; avid readers are generally better conversationalists in my experience. Reading exercises the muscles of the mind, but it can’t change your innate intelligence level, so whether or not it makes you “smarter” really depends on how you define that very nebulous concept.

As you point out in your OP, there are plenty of other pursuits that enrich and improve the mind, and not all readers are doing those - and anyone who thinks reading - or being “smart”, for that matter - makes them better than anyone else is a tosspot.

There is research showing that reading literary and classic fiction does increase intelligence in various ways such as improved empathy, theory of mind, improved critical thinking, increased attention span and ability to mentally handle complex information not to mention improved syntax and vocabulary which will improve and refine your communication skills. Engaging with serious literature stimulates the brain, creates new neural pathways, and can helps you understand complex issues and diverse perspectives, fostering intellectual and personal growth.

Reading typically engages more brain regions for active interpretation and imagination than audio but both reading and audiobooks are less passive than most TV or films it does depend watching a Michael Haneke film will demand more of you than the latest rom-com or marvel offering.

So OP I think you are being unreasonable about reading not making you smarter, it might even make you a better person if you take into account the studies showing that it improves theory of mind and empathy.

However OP its very common these days not to read a book at all of any kind. So you aren't unusual for not doing so.