![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I was reading before I started school and I spent years and years reading books as a way to pass time in school. I still love the way books feel when you hold them, turn the pages, scratch the coated paper ahhh, and smell them mmf. Then I was forced to switch to drawing pictures (because I guess you're not supposed to read all the time in class? weird), and then I discovered video games. Both of these require input and participation. You get to exert control over what you do and think. You change something that is physically outside of yourself, and you can go back later and look at it.
Reading is about like watching TV: something made by someone else runs by you and you don't get to do jack shit about it. At least when I watch TV, I can look away and just listen while using my free hands to do something undemanding (cleaning, sorting laundry, putting food in my face).
Don't be a jerk and say that people who don't like reading have no imagination/bad attention spans. I think that when you say that, it makes you look like someone who is old, obsolete, and really interested in their bowels. You're claiming that people who read are mentally and morally superior because of all the imagining and character building. That is really strange.
Assigning values to neutral things like...pretty much anything, but how about moving around? Eating? Obtaining information? Sharing information? has been proven to make people stop doing all that stuff, EVEN IF YOU LIKE THEM. If you live in a first-world country, at some point you have probably avoided sports, art, reading, staying thin, or all of the above because of this. At the very moment that I write this, I don't really want to do three out of four of these things because something out there is telling me that they are good and I should do them.
Watching TV: You're a dumb MTV child. Smartass movies do not exist. No fun or visual stimuli are allowed.
Video games: You're not only stupid, you're violent. All video games are about shooting aliens are zombies, and they never have anything to do with numbers, learning rules, or problem solving.
Books: You are smart, you never show off too much at parties, you're the kind of child everyone wants, you never let your hair get messy, and you never smell funny. The stuff in your house doesn't look too expensive or glitzy, but it does look comfortable, and like you know how to use everything.
Music: Well, that's not as smart as reading, and you'll spend more money on your stuff than someone who reads would, but you will look really, really cool and be lots of fun to hang out with.
Looking at pictures and art: You are rich, or an alien.
Writing: You have to do it for money. If you write for fun, you are a danger to society and should probably be exiled.
Making pictures: You are kind of a pain in the ass, but people will tolerate you. Inanimate objects and landscapes depicted in watercolor are the best of all. Technical skill is the only justification.
Making curvy sculptures or pottery while female: You are a big dirty nympho.
Do you have something to add to this? I, I doubt anybody will but it would make this more interesting.
This rant happened because I have a ton of books I want to read and a huge video game backlog. I'm frustrated because I can't possibly deal with it all in the way I would like to deal with it (I think of something else to do before I'm "done" with one), and I googled "books are boring" and found a lot of assholes making claims about imagination. I also ran across a Japanese 2ch thread discussing the best place to read, and discovered that everyone was much much more beautiful and interesting than me. (Like anyone reads lying next to a river. Do you know what bugs are?)
Re: idolm@ster SP. Finally, three years after the game came out, I have obtained the (not really) distinguished title of True Idolm@ster. It would have happened sooner but I missed Iori and forgot until I replayed her story mode. Nice, big, clean cutoff point.
Reading is about like watching TV: something made by someone else runs by you and you don't get to do jack shit about it. At least when I watch TV, I can look away and just listen while using my free hands to do something undemanding (cleaning, sorting laundry, putting food in my face).
Don't be a jerk and say that people who don't like reading have no imagination/bad attention spans. I think that when you say that, it makes you look like someone who is old, obsolete, and really interested in their bowels. You're claiming that people who read are mentally and morally superior because of all the imagining and character building. That is really strange.
Assigning values to neutral things like...pretty much anything, but how about moving around? Eating? Obtaining information? Sharing information? has been proven to make people stop doing all that stuff, EVEN IF YOU LIKE THEM. If you live in a first-world country, at some point you have probably avoided sports, art, reading, staying thin, or all of the above because of this. At the very moment that I write this, I don't really want to do three out of four of these things because something out there is telling me that they are good and I should do them.
Watching TV: You're a dumb MTV child. Smartass movies do not exist. No fun or visual stimuli are allowed.
Video games: You're not only stupid, you're violent. All video games are about shooting aliens are zombies, and they never have anything to do with numbers, learning rules, or problem solving.
Books: You are smart, you never show off too much at parties, you're the kind of child everyone wants, you never let your hair get messy, and you never smell funny. The stuff in your house doesn't look too expensive or glitzy, but it does look comfortable, and like you know how to use everything.
Music: Well, that's not as smart as reading, and you'll spend more money on your stuff than someone who reads would, but you will look really, really cool and be lots of fun to hang out with.
Looking at pictures and art: You are rich, or an alien.
Writing: You have to do it for money. If you write for fun, you are a danger to society and should probably be exiled.
Making pictures: You are kind of a pain in the ass, but people will tolerate you. Inanimate objects and landscapes depicted in watercolor are the best of all. Technical skill is the only justification.
Making curvy sculptures or pottery while female: You are a big dirty nympho.
Do you have something to add to this? I, I doubt anybody will but it would make this more interesting.
This rant happened because I have a ton of books I want to read and a huge video game backlog. I'm frustrated because I can't possibly deal with it all in the way I would like to deal with it (I think of something else to do before I'm "done" with one), and I googled "books are boring" and found a lot of assholes making claims about imagination. I also ran across a Japanese 2ch thread discussing the best place to read, and discovered that everyone was much much more beautiful and interesting than me. (Like anyone reads lying next to a river. Do you know what bugs are?)
Re: idolm@ster SP. Finally, three years after the game came out, I have obtained the (not really) distinguished title of True Idolm@ster. It would have happened sooner but I missed Iori and forgot until I replayed her story mode. Nice, big, clean cutoff point.