Will We Still Read Deeply?
Walking through Hangzhou’s icy winter, I saw a magazine, tossed by someone, being flipped wildly by the cold wind at the roadside. A line came to mind: “The clear wind doesn’t know words, so why flip the book at random?” A little further on, I suddenly realized I hadn’t read a hefty book in a long time.
In childhood, books were scarce — only a Chinese textbook and a single extracurricular reader. Each term when new books arrived, I would finish them in one sitting, then spend the rest of the semester rereading those two.
With the rise of online literature, accessing content became easier. I remember buying a 4‑inch MP4 player in college, loading it with many TXT novels. Reading quietly late at night, I could finish quite a few over a year.
Later, as smartphones became ubiquitous, information grew even more accessible. Toutiao, WeChat official accounts, and Weibo pushed a flood of updates every day. Reading became a burden: every evening I would open each red‑dot account, glance at the title, and count it as “done.” Everything turned into fast‑moving consumer goods. The office no longer debated national affairs or real‑time hot topics. You’d find that Old Zhang’s views were the same as some “expert” you saw on WeChat yesterday, and Old Li’s stock predictions echoed a long Weibo post by some influencer.
We’ve entered the era of fast consumption. Everything feels cheap; reading has almost no cost — and yet it has become the most time‑wasting thing.
Perhaps, 30 years from now, when we’re tired of fast‑food reading and ready to return to deep reading, there will be no one left who can write long passages describing beautiful scenery, delicate feelings, or subtle intrigues.
Perhaps, 30 years from now, as Nicholas Carr suggests, we’ll be so accustomed to fast consumption that humanity invents even quicker ways to acquire knowledge — a tiny chip that stores the entirety of human knowledge in our brains. People will be all‑knowing, individuals indistinguishable, communication unnecessary; we will become like a tree, growing in isolation.
“Dong, stop!”
…
“Don’t stop!”
Both lawyers agreed it was a misunderstanding.
Settlement.
I haven’t read enough books; it seems I can’t write much of substance. Time to read.~~
Published at: Dec 30, 2018 · Modified at: Oct 26, 2025
