The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society

You can't help but notice, in yourself and in others, how much less people are reading these days. When it comes to content consumption, we're often replacing articles and books with videos and, well, podcasts. My guest says that this shift is having consequences, not only for our shrinking individual attention spans, but for society, and Western civilization writ large. His name is James Marriott, and he's a columnist at The Times of London and the author of The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society. Today on the show, James explains how people thought and interacted before the rise of reading and writing, how literacy changed our minds and made possible everything from democracy to modern science, and how television and smartphones may be returning us in some ways to a preliterate age. We then explore how our increasingly visual culture is making public debate more emotional and influence more personality-driven, and what it might mean for the future. After the show is over, check out the show notes at aom.is/darkages Resources Related to the Show The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes by Jonathan Rose AoM Article: The Medium Is the Message Dying Breed Article: The Four Ages of Communication: How Changing Media Transforms the Human Experience Orality and Literacy by Walter Ong Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman Connect With James Marriott James' Substack: Cultural Capital 0:00 Introduction 0:39 The Decline of Reading 5:14 The Golden Age of Mass Literacy 8:24 How Literacy Changed the Mind 12:06 The Preliterate Mind 14:51 Truth and Conflict in Oral Culture 19:18 How Literacy Built Civilization 21:34 The Gutenberg Press & the Reading Revolution 30:45 Television and the Decline of Reading 33:16 Amusing Ourselves to Death 42:03 The Smartphone & the Post-Literate World 50:50 The Future of Reading See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.