At least there's sunshine today

I am so not in the mood to write. This leads me to the conclusion that I should not only be writing but writing more.

 

I love having a writing voice. I love expressing myself with words. I love words. I love $5 dollar words. Learning new, obscure or outdated words is a game for me. Pleonastic*, plethora*, etymology*, and illuminate* are just a few of my favorites.

 

I recall reading an article (I don’t remember when) that reported we, as a culture or society, are losing words. The vocabulary available just decades ago has been drastically reduced. Shakespeare’s time, we are not.

 

I wonder why? I suspect technology and the fact that most do not read for pleasure. The second point has some to do with the first point but more on that later. I know there are those who still enjoy curling up on the couch with a throw and diving into a good book (or an e-reader if you must Mom). As an adult, I have numerous friends who don’t really like to read. I remember being weird growing up because I liked books so much; I think I expected it to change when I was an adult. Add that to the pile of bubbles popped by adulthood.

 

Firstly, why do I think technology plays a role? Think about all the different forms of media you are exposed to everyday. What do you think is the average attention span of a person? Do you realize that average commercials used to be minutes long? Today, advertisers want your attention in 20-30 second clips. It’s all about maximizing a small bit of time so networks/websites/billboards can sell more spots.

 

Advertisers often claim that they have to shorten their spots to deal with the shortened attention spans of today’s audiences, but it’s a vicious cycle. Shorter commercials = shorter attention spans. Shorter attention spans = shorter commercials.

 

An aside*: I remember the first multi-billboard I ever encountered.  I don’t remember where, Indianapolis or Kansas City maybe, but the impression was vivid.  Right before my eyes the billboard flipped in various panels, like a slide transition in a PowerPoint presentation.  There was a completely unrelated ad now staring me in the face. And now we have electronic billboards that can scroll through myriad ads.

 

Today we get news in the ticker along the bottom of screen while we maybe pay attention to hour 27 of the latest world crisis. We get email updates from the major news outlets or networks that are packaged into nice little paragraphs to sum up the article in the link provided; we may or may not (more likely not) click the hyperlink and read the full article.

 

We have no patience to read an entire article. Give us a graph to sum up the poll. Give us a chart to show the differences between the two products or candidates. Give us a time line to sum up the history of this particular thing. Give us bullet points in the intro so we don’t have to go further than the second paragraph. We’re just reading the summaries on the yahoo/google/msn/cnn news websites, right?

 

(None of the above examples are bad things, in and of themselves. They are all very helpful tools. But I don’t think they should replace well reasoned and skillfully constructed full paragraphs.)

 

Secondly, why don’t people read for pleasure anymore? First, let’s be honest. It hasn’t always appealed to everyone. Could that be because they haven’t read enough? Everyone has an interest in something. There are books about everything out there. I think there are many who haven’t given books enough of a chance.

 

I also point the fingers and parents and teachers, and yes, a culture, who haven’t fostered environments that make reading fun or rewarding. I’ve seen terribly sad statistics over the years of how many students are actually graduating high school without basic reading comprehension skills. Who would want to read when it’s so hard and no one seems to think it matters to life?

 

Reading is an enriching experience that I am thrilled my parents encouraged. In fact all my parents are skilled writers, some more technical, others more imaginative. Reading and writing go hand in hand. I think I would be lost without my abilities to express myself in erudite* terms. Praise God for these blessings He’s given.

 

I sit here writing, wishing I was not or had something better to say. But at least there’s sunshine today.

 

(*Yes, you may have to go look up some words in the dictionary—I’m not telling you what they means here)