Summary Of Reading And Thought By Dwight Macdonald

Statistics have shown that less than half the adults in America read literature, while there is a continuous drop. In “Reading and Thought,” an article written by Dwight Macdonald, argues against the idea of “functional curiosity,” a term created by Henry Luce. Macdonald believes that functional curiosity doesn’t give out meaningful knowledge but instead, it allows individuals to practice reading. He further explains that society is changing their reading habits such as skimming through their reading because people “just don’t have the time.” He compares people to the past who were shallow and had narrow views. Moreover, the quality of printed matter has gone down and the work produced will just be disregarded. Dwight also states that people’s attention span has shorten to a point where they will just skim over without thinking what they have just read and soon the material will pass through their heads. With advancement in technology, you would assume that people would read more since there is easier access. However, many no longer read books because they are too occupied with their mobile phones, television shows, or video games. In my personal opinion, I agree with Macdonald that reading is an important habit we should

Starting my high school year, books were assigned each summer. The most we had to do was write a summary about the reading during the beginning of class. This meant we only had to know the events in chronological order; many students did not think critically after reading. Without finding the moral and subliminal messages that the stories gave out, students altered their reading habits by skimming the important parts and ignoring the smaller details. Towards the end of the year, students did not even read the original books; they read chapter summaries on Sparknotes, yet passed the quizzes. Since there was the lack of thought, reading was practically