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Dwight Macdonald Reading And Thought Summary

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In “Reading and Thought” by Dwight Macdonald, Macdonald raises the idea of reading deeply and how our society has changed its reading style. He points out that our modern society constantly reads irrelevant information in articles, newspapers, or magazines in our daily lives. A term called “functional curiosity” is a person’s interest in being amused, entertained or wanting to know what’s happening around the world. According to Henry Luce, the creator of Time magazine, “Functional Curiosity grows as the number of educated peoples grows.” Macdonald argues that being “functionally curious” is not functional because it does not help the individual function. These articles, magazines or newspapers do not help the reader become wealthier, politically known, or a better person. The author believes that reading irrelevantly …show more content…

Reading purposely can help the reader develop connections to the articles because they are taking their time to read and develop these feelings that can relate to their personal lives. I disagree with Macdonald because I believe that there are benefits to not taking the time to read and reading ‘irrelevant’ articles. It can help ones’ personal life because they are able to find more media that can help their personal life and it can also help improve them to be a well-rounded person. Our modern society has evolved a lot since the 16th century, it has become a fast-paced environment from technology and the Industrial Revolution. Many people do not have the time to sit down and read a four-page article, and the result of this has changed how our media presents their media. Articles are very quick and straight to the point, although they are very short, many readers skim through it because they may be multitasking. Readers can be scrolling through their social media while eating breakfast, on their way to work or another activity that doesn’t require their full attention. Even though the reader is trying to read

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