4 ms·

What do you mean mass production of books ? Democratization of the printing press ? It seems to me the printing press actually improved things, but in more rec

What do you mean mass production of books ? Democratization of the printing press ? It seems to me the printing press actually improved things, but in more recent time the educating power and self improvement potential of books got significantly diluted by drowning books into huge numbers of published entertainment pieces. Entertainment took over knowledge. I'd say the opposite: today people are reading less book than 20 years ago, writing on paper less and language is on a trend ot become impoverished.

icebraining 9y ago
It seems to me the printing press actually improved things, but in more recent time the educating power and self improvement potential of books got significantly diluted by drowning books into huge numbers of published entertainment pieces. Entertainment took over knowledge. What's entertainment and what's knowledge? Where do you fit Fahrenheit 451?
Broken_Hippo 9y ago
Yes, exactly that. Folks thought that cheap, freely available books would ruin a generation, their minds being unable to remember things like past generations. Young folks would no longer learn as their heads were stuck in fantasy books. They might even become immoral. They thought similar things about chess - that it would make a generation of morons. "The Simpsons" were controversial in the 80's, since they just knew kids would try to emulate Bart, just for a more recent example. My mother wouldn't let me watch it for some years on the single family television. And lastly: I don't know if folks are reading fewer books or not if you count digital books. That said, I think folks read a lot more than they used to, since a lot of communication is text-based.
- Apocryphon 9y ago
  Whoever thought that chess would make people stupid?
  - Broken_Hippo 9y ago
    Quick look shows I've mixed up facts, and honestly don't have the time to do a deeper search to find the attitude. It seems more of a social evil from a shallow search, but that's just a mention in the Wikipedia article [1]. A little more information here [2].It has been banned numerous times through history. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess#Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess#Europe [2] http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/04/07/the-evils-of-chess/ http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/04/07/the-evils-of-chess/

icebraining 9y ago

It seems to me the printing press actually improved things, but in more recent time the educating power and self improvement potential of books got significantly diluted by drowning books into huge numbers of published entertainment pieces. Entertainment took over knowledge. What's entertainment and what's knowledge? Where do you fit Fahrenheit 451?

Broken_Hippo 9y ago

Yes, exactly that. Folks thought that cheap, freely available books would ruin a generation, their minds being unable to remember things like past generations. Young folks would no longer learn as their heads were stuck in fantasy books. They might even become immoral. They thought similar things about chess - that it would make a generation of morons. "The Simpsons" were controversial in the 80's, since they just knew kids would try to emulate Bart, just for a more recent example. My mother wouldn't let me watch it for some years on the single family television. And lastly: I don't know if folks are reading fewer books or not if you count digital books. That said, I think folks read a lot more than they used to, since a lot of communication is text-based.

Apocryphon 9y ago
Whoever thought that chess would make people stupid?
- Broken_Hippo 9y ago
  Quick look shows I've mixed up facts, and honestly don't have the time to do a deeper search to find the attitude. It seems more of a social evil from a shallow search, but that's just a mention in the Wikipedia article [1]. A little more information here [2].It has been banned numerous times through history. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess#Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess#Europe [2] http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/04/07/the-evils-of-chess/ http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/04/07/the-evils-of-chess/