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

[OnceaReaderNeveraReader]

Never been a reader. I have tried many times in my life and have enjoyed the odd book here and there but have never managed to actually become a regular reader and don't miss books ever. I was talking about this with some colleagues the other day and one of them made me feel a bit bad about this as if reading is a sign of better intellectual ability and superiority.
I am uni educated and enjoy a variety of other cultural hobbies such as art, theatre and dance but I just cannot understand what is so special about books!
How does one become a reader later in life and is it really that bad if I don't enjoy it?

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.

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 Books go out of date the second anything changes after the publisher has hit print.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 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.

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.

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 😝

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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!

" That's what all the AI says"

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

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.

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.

"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.

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

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!