Reading maketh a full (wo)man

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read - Mark Twain 

Our generation has witnessed many marvellous technological innovations. Many of them are on the positive side, making our lives easier and more comfortable. There is greater speed and efficiency. Sadly, however, there is a flip side too. The proverbially acclaimed reading habit has become a victim of modernity.

Joseph Addison said, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Just as the body that is left inactive goes into atrophy, such a mind shrinks and shrivels.

Research has confirmed that reading stimulates a complex network of circuits and signals in the brain. Reading results in thinking and the expansion of the mind. Reading triggers the imagination. In other words, if we don’t exercise our minds regularly, our cognitive abilities will decline.

The invasion of technology is mainly responsible for the gradual decline of the reading habit. Social media in particular has taken over the human mind massively and irretrievably. We do not realise that its aftermath can be devastating.

Visual media has hijacked young minds. Small children fed on visual images on the screen, oftentimes by unwitting parents, do not realise that they are robbing them of their fundamental urge to read and think. Instead, they are given answers straightaway, without any mental effort. This, in the long run, is going to take away their innate curiosity and critical thinking skills.

A large portion of people’s waking hours are spent on social media, looking at phones, laptops, and such screens. It is screen, and more screen. It can run for several hours a day. What it does to the eyes and our health because of radioactive rays is anybody’s guess.

One might argue that reading can be done on the screen as well. There are many digital reading platforms and e-readers. Books can be read if one gets the Kindle versions. It’s easy to carry. One can read it while travelling. We can have several books in that tiny gadget. It’s all very tempting and trending. But at what cost?

The benefits of reading are well known: it widens our horizons, giving us new knowledge and fresh insights. It is the best pastime in the world when time hangs heavy on our hands. It reduces stress and improves our mental health. Our sense of empathy, which is the very essence of human relationships, is nurtured by reading. Reading gets us closer to all shades of human behaviour. Nothing else can open up the unseen world so endearingly to us. Reading can take us to celestial heights of ecstasy.

While reading widens our imagination, our vocabulary will expand, and our literary skills will flourish. We will acquire felicity with words and the power of self-expression. Effective speech and writing are the by-products of wide reading.

Our schools and homes have to inculcate the habit of reading in children. Parents and teachers have to be role models. Unless we nurture the reading habit in children, there is no hope for reading to get its due place. Every school should have a library. Newspaper reading also has to be cultivated in children. Good habits developed in childhood will stay with them for life. Reading habits will certainly stand them in good stead.

The human mind’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life’s experiences is called neuroplasticity. It is the ability of the brain to adapt itself to change by creating new neurons and building new networks. We need to take this seriously in the context of reading.

Historically, scientists believed that the brain stopped growing after childhood and adolescence. But recent research has established that the brain is able to grow and change throughout our lifespan, refining and renovating its architecture, using the different regions of the brain in an evolutionary cycle, and ever expanding and renewing itself in a continuous process. This is nothing short of a miracle. Those who don’t experience the joy of reading are blissfully unaware of the sheer delight derived from it.

If we read, our brain will continue to function with greater efficiency. Obviously, if we do not read, our brains will go into a state of stagnation and atrophy. Thus, reading must be our constant, unfailing companion.
Sir Francis Bacon said succinctly all we need to know about reading. “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.” There is an unmistakable complementarity among them.

(The writer is the director of Little Rock, Brahmavar in Udupi)