Can a book be a better company than a person?
Of course, I know there are certain cases and scenarios but… I feel as if some of us (myself included) are somewhat longing so much for a sort of human connection with other people, but barely being able to achieve this? I mean, if you’ve been before on dating apps and the like you might know what I am talking about. You meet someone, you start talking, the traditional conversation goes, then it stalls, maybe the other person stops replying and there you go round into the cycle again…
It’s become sort of tedious, longing for some sort of meaningful connection through digital means which made me start to wonder if, and only if, the sort of connection we are seeking, are actually to be found by other means? Also, don’t get me wrong but, the sort of interactions that I’ve had and oftentimes left me usually even more dissociated with myself were kinda numerous. As in, you left feeling even more hollow, because you couldn’t really create some sort of meaningful connection with that other person and you resolve to consider if the wrong part of the equation was yourself?
So then, we also have the advent of short-term-content-form, through reels, instagram, YT, and the like, and… The amount of information you can fit in there is really tiny, if compared, for example, an essay or even a book. And, also, besides, moste of the time the kind of arguments and information presented does not have a background or reference, being solely that person’s point of view, that might be skewed or have some inherent bias…
I mean, it’s a totally different form of content from, let’s say, a peer reviewed book,that maybe took months to write and back-and-forth corrections from the Editor, and conclusions to be made. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, maybe some short videos are well researched and a few books are bullshit, but on the grand scheme of things, I tend to think that long form content, with peer-review guardrails tends to be more fulfilling somehow?
Of course, it also depends on what you are looking for. If it’s just a quickfix and some short-term distraction, you can swipe indefinetly you reels or the like. But then, it hits totally different, once you hit the end of a novel that was purposefully crafted to convey a certain meaning, versus when you find yourself intertwined into a vortex of disconnected and nonsensical information that literally just hovers over a bottomless pit of nullifiable exposure of emotions such as hatred, lust and the like…
And so, what so many of us consume is what ends up shaping our inner world and feeding our beliefs… If instead, we choose to veer towards the formation of structured information and knowledge as instead of those void-feasting induction so many of us fall prey to, maybe our outlooks at things could change a little then…. maybe?