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 RoseAoM Article: The Medium Is the MessageDying Breed Article: The Four Ages of Communication: How Changing Media Transforms the Human ExperienceOrality and Literacy by Walter OngAmusing 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

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