Worldwide, the number of readers is decreasing, and reading and writing skills are declining.
At the same time, digital entertainment technologies have taken over our leisure time.
In his book "The End of Reading," James Marriott describes this shift toward a post-literary era. For the first time since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the “golden chain of knowledge” that had bound readers together for centuries began to unravel. The reading revolution of the 18th century paved the way for the Enlightenment, science, and democracy, because reading stimulates thinkingLinear, structured and dialectical.
As they decline, discussions also change: they become more emotional, more fragmented, and more prone to oversimplification. James Marriott believes that the consequences of this development on the public sphere and politics are a gradual erosion of political maturity.
It paints a picture of a society in which the loss of the culture of reading is closely linked to polarization, increasing susceptibility to populism, and the transformation of democratic societies.
