even decline in book-reading seems possible, though of course greater leisure and wealth, larger quantity of cheaply and conveniently available books, etc. cut strongly the other way
My focus on books is mainly from seeing statistics about the decline in book-reading over the years, at least in the US. Pulling up some statistics (without much double-checking) I see:
For 2023 the number of Americans who didn’t read a book within the past year seems to be up to 46%, although the source is different and the numbers may not be directly comparable:
That suggests to me that selection effects on who reads have gotten much stronger over the years.
How hard to understand was that sentence?
I do think it would have been better split into multiple sentences.
the version of my argument that makes sense under that hypothesis would crux on books being an insufficiently distinct use of language to not be strongly influenced...by other uses of language.
That could be; I haven’t seen statistics on reading in other media. My intuition is that many people find reading aversive and avoid it to the extent they can, and I think it’s gotten much more avoidable over the past decade.
My focus on books is mainly from seeing statistics about the decline in book-reading over the years, at least in the US. Pulling up some statistics (without much double-checking) I see:
(from here.)
For 2023 the number of Americans who didn’t read a book within the past year seems to be up to 46%, although the source is different and the numbers may not be directly comparable:
(chart based on data from here.)
That suggests to me that selection effects on who reads have gotten much stronger over the years.
I do think it would have been better split into multiple sentences.
That could be; I haven’t seen statistics on reading in other media. My intuition is that many people find reading aversive and avoid it to the extent they can, and I think it’s gotten much more avoidable over the past decade.