The Death of Imagination: How Modern Media Consumes Our Minds
Hello friends, we meet again in my little corner of the internet. This week, I had the opportunity to drive a great deal. In a 48-hour period, I drive roughly 18 hours, so needless to say, I spend a lot of time either listening to some form of podcast or audiobook. The ideas I focused on this week were rather scattered. I am continuing a significant writing project and so my thoughts have been divided between the things I am learning as well as organizing my thoughts for this project. So, this week’s post may come off as a bit more scattered than normal.
Chaos by Tom O’Neil
I was made aware of this book by the political commentator and an activist seeking the truth, Candance Owens. As someone who is a big fan of her work and her relentless work in this area, I was very intrigued by her recommendation of this book. I had heard the name Charles Manson a few times growing up, but I never heard exactly what his story was. I knew he was some cult leader and had a large following of women I had never heard anything beyond this. So, I went into this book blindly. The book is written by a journalist who spent twenty years investigating the stories of the Charles Manson murders. An official narrative was sold to the general public, and the work of this book challenges many of the previous beliefs of the why behind the actions of the Manson cult. As I reached the closing chapters of this book, I was disappointed in the conclusion. My disappointment did not come from the skill of the writer but instead from the lack of concrete finality and answers to many of the questions raised throughout the pages of this book.
If there was a key takeaway for me as I closed the pages of this book, it is that there is a great deal of corruption that exists within many of our institutions of power. In a week where we saw what could only be called a mock trial of Donald J Trump, the 45th president of the United States of America, it was obvious to me that the corruption that exists within these institutions has only gotten worse. And my view is that these institutions prey on the ignorance of the people. As I thought about the reality of how they prey on the ignorance of people, I couldn’t help myself, and I did some research to understand how much of a change in reading habits we have seen over recent decades.
Average Number of Books Read Per Year by Americans
Sources: Pew Research Center, Gallup Polls, National Endowment for the Arts reports.
Specific references:
The chart shows approximately a 40% decrease in the average amount of books being read.
Average Hours Spent on Media and Entertainment (1974-2024)
This chart shows the increasing amount of time spent on new forms of media and entertainment.
The red line indicates TV Hours,
The Green line indicates Internet Hours
The blue line indicates gaming Hours.
As of 2024, the average American spends around 7 hours and 4 minutes per day on screens. This includes time spent on activities such as watching TV, using the internet, gaming, and social media. Essentially, screentime has become a full-time job for many.
Average Number of Books Read Per Year by Generation
Baby Boomers: 15 books per year
Generation X: 12 books per year
Millennials: 10 books per year
Generation Z: 8 books per year
As our attention is redirected to these various forms of new entertainment, we see the continuous abandonment of reading as a common practice. While I do think that there are forms of entertainment today that can help in learning, the reality is that television and film do not require the same amount of effort as reading. Reading invokes the imagination; it requires a certain level of focus and attention. Many of our modern forms of entertainment require no such effort. They allow us to lay on the couch and be fed whatever comes onto the screen. We become passive observers rather than active participants in the story. The wonder of reading a book is it brings our brains to life. As the story unfolds, we get to imagine the vast worlds found in the pages of the book before us.
I can’t help but wonder if this is part of the reason why Hollywood today seems to lack imagination. Everything they do today preys on the legacy of old stories; everything is a remake or a spinoff of an old story. Rarely do we see original ideas come to the silver screen. Though I think there are much bigger problems within the hills of Hollywood, I think it is obvious that they have run out of ideas. So when new technologies such as AI come about, they quickly revolt because these AI programs will, in short order, replace many of its writers, producers, directors, and actors. I think it is very possible with the upcoming possibilities of AI technologies that we may live to see movies come to life, and when the credits roll, we will see but a single name.
There has been a long death of imagination, and its death has come from various places. Its death has come from generations who have never been without a screen, and so they have never found themselves lying on the cool green grass of a summer night and, with simple wonder, admired all of the creation above. No longer does anyone invoke their imagination in the quiet moments of life because there are no longer any quiet moments left. Our time is consumed by screens ever, inches from our fingertips.
As I continue to work on a big writing project, I will share some information I find along the way. So this week, I leave you with a fantastic podcast episode from the Tammy Peterson Podcast, in which she and Janice Fiamengo have a very interesting conversation about Simone de Beauvoir, an icon of feminism, and her book “The Second Sex,” which some call The Feminist Bible.
As I am eager to continue working on my second writing project, I will leave you all with a short post this week. I hope you have a great week and have found something fun or interesting to consider within these pages this week.
