I think we’re all pretty clear on the fact that junk food can kill you. I mean, I don’t hear any doctors advocating a steady diet of Big Macs and super sized fries.
But despite this, folks still load up their bellies with double Whoppers, Twinkies (if you can find them), and all manner of junk (uh, guilty). But they do so knowing that they’re waistline will likely expand, and they may need a few more trips to the doctor when they get older.
But what about our minds?
Though we know the risks of a steady junk food diet and many of us are opting to live healthier, more balanced lives, a lot of folks don’t know or care about the risks of feeding our minds over-processed, harmful crap.
We happily read ratchet blogs, consume hours of “hilarious” videos of people behaving badly, tune into political pundits argue it out, watch hours reality shows that do little but make us shake our heads and feel superior to the idiots on the TV, and reading…what’s that?
According to a 2007 survey by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), we have almost all abandoned reading for pleasure for quick bits of information like blogs, twitter, and TV.
CBS News distilled the survey down:
- On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.
- Reading scores for American adults of almost all education levels have deteriorated, notably among the best-educated groups. From 1992 to 2003, the percentage of adults with graduate school experience who were rated proficient in prose reading dropped by 10 points, a 20 percent rate of decline.
- In 2002, only 52 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24, the college years, read a book voluntarily, down from 59 percent in 1992.
- American 15-year-olds ranked fifteenth in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France, and Canada, among others.
Pretty scary, right?
As someone who has always loved words, I’m a little ashamed to say that until recently, I was one of those folks reading just 7-minutes a day for pleasure (yes, yes, judge), while watching a jillion hours of TV, and combing Facebook, Twitter, and other blogs for writing material (or just killing time).
Recently, though, I inadvertently flipped an internal switch. Perhaps it was brought on by my birthday, or maybe my mind just got tired of being stuffed with junk, but I’ve been reading like a fiend lately….and I love it.
Over the past two month I’ve devoursed novels, business books, self-help books, books about writing, books about love (my fav), and I’m still going strong.
This return to nourishing my brain has not only left me feeling calmer and more introspective, but also more creative as well.
I wonder what I could have created had I kicked off this book binge sooner?
At any rate, this time has been eye-opening on a few levels. Over the past few weeks I’ve come to grips with the fact that:
1) It’s ok if I’m not OUTRAGED at every, little stupid or mildly racist thing that bubbles up on social media (this is lowkey huge because this was a big part of my life before).
2) It’s ok if I don’t know what happened on the last episode of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta (or *insert show here*)…and don’t care.
3) It’s ok if I feel like staying home and reading on a Friday night instead of going to a party.
4) It’s ok if I put myself to sleep by telling my own made-up stories. Who knows, I may write them down one day.
Along with helping me be more a more patient and happier person, reading improves our health. It can increase our attention spans, empathy for others, and exercises your entire brain. And I don’t know about you, but I plan on being a hot, brillant mama well into my 80s, so if reading can keep my brain as fierce as I plan to look, I’m IN!
While I’ve been enjoying my time with books, I’m not trading in ALLLLLL of my guilty pleasures.
Don’t get it twisted, I’m not a reality TV basher, and at times, I indulge in a little bit of ratchet entertainment. All things in moderation, after all.
But going forward, I will adopt the 80/20 (ok, maybe 60/40) rule for my mind.
Mostly good shit in, hopefully mostly good shit out.
And as a writer, what more can I ask for than that?
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What kind of diet is your brain on? Leave a comment below and let me know how you’re feeding your brain.
BTW, what are you reading now? I’m reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s amazing novel, ‘Americanah.’
*photo cred: Yeah Writers
Let me stop reading all these blogs and get some real reading done
Wait…
I see whatcha did there…lol
I just finished reading Americanah and would love to know what you think of it so far! I’m fortunate enough to not only work for a library but to also be in a country with limited broadband so it’s not difficult to stay away from the ratchet, but my blog addiction is terrible. To balance out, I try to carve out an hour a day (spread over my lunch break, after work and before bed) to curl up with a book and I use Goodreads to keep track of my progress.
Unrelated, but I love receiving your emails! Keep up the brilliant work 🙂
Hey Kalakuta,
(btw: are you in Nigeria? Kalakuta was Fela’s compound, but I’m sure you knew this).
I LOVED the book. I JUST finished it this morning. Maaaaan. Obinze’s story in London, heartbreaking. I thought it was very interesting in a way that we don’t really hear/read about America through a different lens and ups and downs of immigration. If you’re on Twitter, we can discuss this further @BritniDWrites. I want to talk about this book!
Your email came right on time it’s funny because I was just telling my boyfriend yesterday how much I really need to start reading books again so I downloaded Hill Harpers Letters to a young sister. I’m really excited about reading it and I really agree with everything you said in your article we really do need to stop going on Twitter and Instagram so often and start to feed out minds with more sustenance thrpugh literature! its imperative! Love your emails/articles! Keep them coming 🙂
I just finished “listening” to Love is the Killer App. I’ve been doing a lot of books on tape for the past two years. I do make time to read as well, but I’m not on the one book a week train like I was five years ago.
I’m not sure where all the time is going, but I have been focused on better utilizing the time I have.
I’ve always been a huge reader but was using the excuse “I don’t have time” to get out of it. My friend put me on to audio books (I used to scoff at the idea of an AUDIO book thinking it defeated the purpose of having a book) but I’ve been hooked ever since. Instead of listening to music when I work out/commute, I listen to an audio book. I feel better after listening to wise words versus rap, rock, pop, etc. When I get tired of hearing words, I listen to classical music, and when I tire of that, if I’m still being active in whatever I’m doing, THEN I put on my regular tunes or just take the earbuds out altogether. I couldn’t tell you the latest twerk song, but I can tell you I feel better about ME.
As far as what I’m listening to, I have already listened to The Art of War, and I’m about halfway through The Prince. Next up a book by PT Barnum. All free books via Libravox. Perhaps I’ll start paying for the books when I get tired of pre-1923 material (which are all in the public domain).
((Oh, and for those of you who may not know that much about classical music (of which I am a fan) I implore you to Google/YouTube the following: William Grant Still and Florence Price, to start. You’re welcome))
Audiobooks work. I was binging on those for a while. Youtube has a lot of them, but it was wreaking havoc on my data plan LOL.
Great article, I too have trade my remote control in for a page turner. I have even gone as far as reading on the treadmill. They say writers that read a lot write well. A good read is Stephen King’s book “On Writing.