How to make a significant impact in politics, health, and society: read
The danger
A primary cause of political extremism and ignorance is people not reading. Especially in recent decades, TV, social media, low-quality internet sites, and now podcasts and short-form video have stunted and reduced the trust our society puts in things we read.
(Note: all my numbers deal with “Americans,” but the trends probably persist everywhere.)
For example, people put just as much trust in health information from podcasters as they do in written scientific journals and textbooks. Why does that matter? Does the marginal effect of how we consume the information matter? Maybe. But, even if it doesn’t, what certainly matters is that the incentives of a podcaster are drastically different from someone writing a scientific article or a textbook. A podcaster needs as many followers as possible, and maybe cares about how sellable (manipulatable) the audience is. One of the lowest things on their list of motivators is “accuracy.”
In addition to political extremism and political ignorance, this foments problems in arenas such as health and society. You can see it in how our mental health is affected by the chaotic, passionate (and angry?) default format of social media, low-quality internet sites, podcasts, and short-form video.
And, our culture and society are inspired by the way we consume things and the type of things we consume. One effect is we begin to disbelieve, disrespect, or even villainize experts and expertise, and we accept that our information diet should be like the food we get from internet news feed algorithms — e.g., whatever we “like” or is “trending.”
But many important things are things we do not initially like, some medicine tastes bad, and new knowledge needs to overcome old trends.
Understanding that society is subconsciously influenced by how and what we consume can lead us to heal by consuming better things in better ways.
The problem
Here are some data that illustrate the problem:
- A new study finds 75% of Facebook shares are made without reading the content. Political content is even more likely than neutral content to be shared without being read.
- In 2022, Americans spent an average of 15 minutes a day reading.
- In 2021, 17% of American adults said they read no books in the past year.
- In 2023, 46% of 1,500 Americans surveyed finished zero books.
Solutions
It seems that simply reading more can heal many societal issues.
It also matters much less what you read than that you participate in the reading culture. Whether your brand is the Bible, textbooks, fantasy novels, or scientific articles, the important takeaway is that 15 minutes a day of reading is the bare minimum.
When our screen time is measured in hours per day but our reading time is measured in single-digit minutes per day, we will never have a positive information diet trend.
A second key detail is to develop a culture where we trust people who are experts, not who we “like.” Trust people who “read the transcript,” not cable news hosts or young adult TikTok personalities (unless they are reporting on a book or trustworthy article they read, or a thing they have actually done).
To illustrate this point, let me lean on the example of Joe Rogan. It is nothing personal, he is just a perfect case study. For instance, he once pushed the story of litter boxes in schools, which became widely shared in some circles, and was easily and firmly debunked as a hoax. But, Rogan’s apology did not get nearly the reach the hoax did. To this day, I still have neighbors who firmly believe some school down the road actually has litter boxes in the bathrooms for furries. I have already wrote about Rogan’s astonishing flip flop on vaccines. So many people remember and believe his hoaxy, inaccurate anti-vax statements, not the science-backed, expert-backed truth.
When we say “do your own research,” this is what we mean — go past the first layer of pundits. A couple searches and a little bit of reading goes a long way. It should not be ironic true that in an age where the sum of human knowledge is available in everyone’s pockets, we are somehow more ignorant than 50 years ago.
In summary, remember, making a habit of reading — no matter the material — heals information diet issues. And, unite together to make a culture where we desire and trust expertise.
