School used to survive on paper. Everything that was done had a tangible paper copy, but now, things are a little different. It is arguably more ecological; there is certainly not as much printing as there was before. However, there is one important fact that we ought to consider when discussing this technological shift: children learn better using paper than using screens. 

Screens and Learning Loss: What the Pandemic Taught Us

The world is truly at our fingertips. We have information, and misinformation, at the click of a button. You would think this would be like a second enlightenment, a thirst for further knowledge and a flourishing of intellectual capacity. The reality is somewhat different. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person learning and restricted the American scholarly scene to online learning.

Students became less attentive, their reading levels dropped, and many did not feel the need to show up and participate. Following the reopening of the world, and of schools, absenteeism remained high amongst students. All the information was online, so many felt as if being physically present was an option, not a requirement.

This data is not only found in America, nor did the problem only arise following the pandemic. There has been a constant decline in English and mathematics proficiency. The technological revolution may have led to a plethora of new advancements but it also gave students devices infected with distraction. Training your brain to stay focused and attentive takes time and constant effort, usually reinforced at an early age through school.

However, with the reliance on technology, the need for longer attention spans is lessening and lessening. Kids can no longer easily push for their intellectual potential because their learning is mainly conducted on online spaces that are not optimal for comprehension and concentration.

The Dopamine Trap: How Devices Distract Young Minds

One of the biggest and most popular technological advances was the smartphone, and now, it is like a dopamine machine. Even our laptops give access to various social media platforms, full of short-form videos that can keep you entertained for hours on end. Of course, with such easily achieved dopamine, our brains no longer have to work as hard to achieve feelings of contentment and reward.

Contrary to what students may say, writing assignments or reading paper books can give us a feeling of hard-earned reward. Humans are wired to want to learn and achieve. Our superpower is our brain, and it needs to be worked on. A study from the University of Valencia found that reading print is six to eight times more effective at building comprehension skills than reading on screen.

This phenomenon is so prominent in studies that it has been named the ‘Screen Inferiority Effect’ and describes how reading on a technological device leads to a lower level of understanding and information retention. 

Adapting to the Future: Technology, AI, and Education

Although this all sounds a little pessimistic, the future isn’t all full of grey clouds. Like all technology before us, we learn to adapt. It is frightening at first, but like in schools, it is unlikely that things will go back to exactly how they were. Teachers will learn to adapt; students will need to learn the impact of AI and work harder on skills like reading and deeper topic knowledge.

Maybe ChatGPT and other AI platforms will one day provide useful tools for students, rather than simply replacing the thought and research process. The problem we face now is that, unlike many other technological advancements, the development of AI is going at lightning speed, and we are constantly running to keep up. 

Why Students Still Crave Books and a Pen on Paper

In the meantime, encouraging students to spend more time putting pen to paper and to picking up real, physical books can actively fight against the negative impacts of technology and screen-based learning. Children and adolescents can also be their own biggest influencers. The success of BookTok on TikTok, as well as media trends like ‘Dark Academia’ which romanticize a life of academics and writing, suggest that there is reason to have hope. 

The Path Forward: Blending Tradition with Innovation

The studies that have arisen around levels of subject comprehension leave much to be desired, but maybe these results are just in need of a bit of framing. Data is needed in order to inform action and to move forward with the best path possible. These results, whilst a reality check, can allow us to improve the education system rather than enable it to continue on its downward spiral.

If students learn better on paper, then we need to learn how to implement this into their lives rather than live in pessimism and yearning for simpler times. Data like this demands action. The younger generation is the one that will likely predict the rest of our futures – shouldn’t we want to give them the best chance at success?

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A booklover, for example, has a kind of relationship to their love of reading. It must be nurtured. And what better way to cultivate such a love than by learning how to speak its language? Here is our bookish guide to romanticizing your reading life through the five languages of love.

Quality Time: Making More Time to Read Books You Love

Time is the most precious of resources because one day, it runs out. Therefore, how we choose to spend our time is our largest luxury. Reading is not only good for the mind, but for the soul. It slows us down and prioritizes deeper connection rather than shallow grabs of attention.

While reading can be a solitary activity and a chance to bond with our inner selves, it can also become a great social activity. Despite what the media will tell you, there are still people interested in reading. Many libraries and bookstores will host reading clubs or nights, full of stimulating discussion and deeper, more intentional conversation.

You can start smaller, even just meeting with your friends for a picnic and a read in the park, or share books that you really love. Whilst focusing on your professional career is important, taking time for your own leisure and comfort is essential for your own health and happiness.

If you love reading, set time aside for yourself to do it. Find a new coffee shop and bring that new book along. How you choose to spend your life is a decision you make; shouldn’t you spend it doing something you love?

Physical Touch: The Sensory Joy of Holding a Book

The sensory experience of reading is part of its pleasure. Data actually suggests that this sensory aspect is part of the reason that e-books have not completely taken over the reading world. The feel of a weathered page between your fingers, or the blissful bibliosmia (the smell of old books), cannot be replicated by a screen.

Enhancing the physical experience of reading can be as simple as being present, remembering how the book feels in your hands, or creating a cozy environment perfect for the next time you get lost in the world of literature. For others, reading can become a ritual. Setting a scented candle, brewing a cup of milky English Breakfast tea, or just putting the effort in to enhance and romanticize the love we get from the act of reading.

Acts of Service: Decluttering and Caring for Your Bookshelf

Clutter is generally negative for your mental health; it is linked to higher levels of stress and lower levels of well-being. Even when time is scarce, putting aside a moment in a day to declutter and tidy up our lives is essential for our happiness. It can be difficult to let things go, including books we have read and since put aside, but there is beauty in learning how to say goodbye.

Donating books to your local second-hand store, or to friends or family, can give new life to literature we have since brushed aside. Some booklovers even give themselves strict rules – only allowing themselves to buy a book if they have donated one that they have already finished. Obviously, this isn’t advising anyone to give away their entire collection, but just ensuring that your bookshelf is filled with works that truly bring you joy and meaning.

Receiving Gifts: Treating Yourself to New Books

We know ourselves more deeply than anyone else does. The things we like and dislike, the themes that captivate us, the ideas that have begun growing roots in our minds. People say that we have a version of ourselves that we show to the outer world, and that this is the person that we are perceived to be.

Inside, however, there is the true version of ourselves that only we really know. So who better to entrust with gift-giving than ourselves? Take yourself to a bookshop and pick a book on a subject you’ve been wanting to learn more about, or wander into a second-hand thrift store and find an older book in need of some gentle care and attention.

The beauty of gift-giving is that it doesn’t have to be based on money – you can even give yourself the gift of time. Reorganizing your bookshelf, or even subscribing to literature-loving accounts on writing platforms like Substack, can feel like a genuine and worthwhile gift to the booklover in you.

Words of Affirmation: Journaling and Celebrating Your Reading Journey

As booklovers, words are our lifeblood. There are sentences and passages that move us to our very core, that alight our skin with goosebumps and imprint themselves upon our hearts and minds. Sometimes, the best language of love is language itself – using words to further enhance our experience of reading.

You could write down a list of ‘to-reads’ that you’ve been recommended or that you have wanted to finish for a long time. Many readers also find solace and joy in writing; some keep a journal purely for their latest reads. Remind yourself what you loved about a book, or what you didn’t, as a way to keep the memory bright and alive and relay the thoughts to your future self.    

Whatever language of love you speak, we all recognize that love is an act of purpose and attention. As booklovers, our relationship to reading is one that begins at a young age and spans almost our whole lives, so it is one that needs plenty of nurturing. Romanticizing your life with reading means knowing how to speak these five languages of love. The question is: Will you listen?

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The Origins of Fiction and Its Power

Fiction etymologically originates from the old Latin word fingere, meaning “to form” or “to contrive”. In modern English, it means something closer to “invented” or “imaginary”. Yes, Esther Greenwood of The Bell Jar was a fictional character, but one who lived much the same experiences as the author Sylvia Plath herself.

Writers never write from nothing; our memories often define the characters we write and the lives they lead. Readers will know that sometimes a protagonist will describe an experience that touches us almost personally.

The memories we experience when reading fiction can feel personal, as if we lived them ourselves. Arguably, we did. Psychologists have found that reading fiction can expand upon our own self-identity. The experience of reading a compelling piece of literature can change who we are and steer us as much as a real, lived experience.

Books That Influence Our Lives

Books have a profound influence on readers. There are articles detailing how works of literature significantly changed the lives of the people who read them. Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me, was “deeply connected” to Anne from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. This inspired her to write her own novel, filled with other complex and intelligent female characters.

Everyone has their own reason for living the lives they do. We would be surprised to find how many of their dreams were nurtured from works of fiction. When we read about heroic doctors, witty novelists, or life-saving psychologists, something can fall into place inside of us. It is a rare thing to feel seen and understood, and fiction is often the medium that feels the most accepting.

Unforgettable Moments in Literature

If I were to ask you if there were certain passages or quotes that you remember vividly, I’m sure you would not remain silent. These are moments that transcended simple pages of paper and emblazoned themselves on your heart and memory. If you were a romantic, perhaps it was Mr. Darcy’s confession of love to Elizabeth Bennett, or the bittersweet ending for Noah and Allie in The Notebook.  

It is not rare to read something that makes you feel something so grand that you chase the feeling for the rest of your life, or at least in every book you read since. ‘Men written by women’ describes the type of male suitors that female writers create in their novels. Usually handsome, kind, witty, and unfailingly romantic, these are the type of men that many women search for in their real lives. Fiction, whether we acknowledge it or not, has a deep power over our lives, our aspirations, and our memories.

Escaping Into Fictional Worlds

Literary escapism is coveted now more than ever. We are overwhelmed by the state of the world and our close attachment to it. Overloaded with information, we turn to the oasis of the fictional world. Whether it is Ursula K LeGuin’s fantastical land of Earthsea or Lovecraft’s The Dreamlands, fictional worlds have allowed for a blissful escapism from the real world.

Imagined worlds, with their fictional languages, histories, and cultures, have become an irrefutable part of who people are and have stood the test of time with their influence.

Fiction in Popular Culture

American sitcom The Big Bang Theory follows a group of socially awkward physicists as they navigate the real world. Whatever you think of the show, there is no denying that in times when the sci-fi, fiction-loving young men lack courage, they remember the heroic acts of the imagined characters they so love and respect. Even if you are not a self-proclaimed ‘geek’, you have probably been influenced by a work of fiction.

In times when we need inspiration, we recall the memories of the fictional characters we esteem. Fictional characters are created from people an author may have admired or observed. The qualities of such characters were those that an author thought to be good or at least interesting, qualities that make people of fiction impact readers in a very real way.

Blurring the Line Between Fiction and Reality

While these worlds themselves can often represent the political and social toils of our own, they are foreign enough that we do not feel overwhelmed by them. We can explore such topics with a degree of separation and distance, because they do not directly represent the world we are living in.

The memories of the characters within a work of fiction, or the memory of reading the work itself, feel just as real as things we live through in our own lives. Whether we acknowledge it or not, the things we read become linked inexplicably to the person we become, until it is hard to tell the difference between fiction and reality.

The post The Power of Fiction: How Stories Shape Memory and Identity appeared first on Magazine.

So, what’s the remedy…if there even is one?

Reading.

How Reading Reduces Stress and Anxiety

Picking up a good book can be understood as an activity of leisure, but it is so much more than that. Your brain wants to have complex thoughts; it wants to find connections and stimulate itself.

Reading has been found, time and time again, to build a person’s white matter in the brain, the area responsible for learning and cognitive function. Reading is, therefore, not just a literary escape; it literally changes your brain. A thinking, working brain is more likely to also be a happy one.

Escaping Reality Through Books

It is rare that a person feels completely fulfilled in their career, so they often turn to art forms like reading to give them that feeling of creative or cultural satisfaction. Reading helps us escape the reality we live in by allowing us to lose ourselves within a plot or world that an author has so purposefully created.

While we cannot numb ourselves to reality, we can allow our brains to take this moment of rest. Sometimes, it is only when the world is quiet and we have time for leisure and reflection that we are able to slow ourselves down.

The Link Between Technology, Anxiety, and Depression

Our world is instant; it is tiny little messages demanding sudden attention, but it is not the way humans were designed to live. Levels of anxiety and depression are known to be rising in society. Studies found that, around the time teenagers started getting access to smartphones, levels of anxiety also spiked amongst adolescents.

Our dependence on technology is already running deeper, so we must try and clamber onto the lifeboat now. We must remember that saving our attention spans and reducing our likelihood of high anxiety or depression can be achieved through picking up a book.

Even if you finish a book and decide you didn’t like it, at least you came up with that thought on your own, and it is not just another example of artificial intelligence telling you how to live. 

How Reading Builds Connection and Reduces Loneliness

Depression can be devastatingly isolating.  Humans long to be understood, and sometimes even our friends and families can make us feel like strangers in our own cities. Reading is full of fanciful worlds, worlds that include the broadest range of characters, tropes, and stories.

Writing is limitless, and, as such, we are bound to one day come across a piece of writing that seems to stare right into your being. As if someone had peered into the window of your life and reported back to the author of the story. Suddenly, when we come across work like this, we don’t feel lonely anymore.

Scientific Studies Linking Reading and Mental Health

A 2009 study on the link between stress-relief and reading found that, unsurprisingly, reading just six minutes a day was linked to lower rates of stress by 68%. Since then, countless other studies have said the same thing: reading can promote mental well-being. Reading is not just an art, nor just a way of life, but also a practice of self-care.

It is investing the time into yourself, both for your own happiness and to know that it is one of the best ways to keep your brain active, strong, and healthy. Some of us do not believe we have time for self-care, but if you can pick up a book and spare six minutes of your day, you’re already making the first step. Reading isn’t a cure, but the data is undeniable.

Final Thought: Feed Your Brain, Nurture Your Happiness

It doesn’t have to be a literary piece; pick up a book that you enjoy, and you’ll still reap the benefits. We get too caught up in what other people think of us, including what they think of the books we read, but we have to remember our lives are our own. We need to live our lives as we want, and on that note, read the books we want to read. 

It can be easy to get swept up in this fast-paced culture, and it requires real strength and effort to slow ourselves down enough to pick up a book. Allowing ourselves time for reading is not only a quiet act of defiance against this world of instantaneity, but it is that lifeboat our brain requires.

The post The Mental Health Benefits of Reading You Didn’t Know About appeared first on Magazine.

1. A Deeper Understanding With Every Reread

There is no shame in rereading. Like David Lynch’s surrealistic film Mulholland Drive, sometimes you need a second look at something to understand it fully. The things we learn at the end connect clues from the beginning, and to truly understand it all, we need to start again.  Books like I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, where nothing makes sense until the very end, and even then, we’re left wondering.

We cannot help that sometimes we finish reading a page and realize our mind wasn’t exactly present. Rereading helps you notice that little detail you perhaps had missed – a piece of dialogue, a longing stare – that can change the way we view the story and the characters within it.  Books were not meant to be read once; their pages were meant to be a little weathered, sentences underlined, kissed with the ghosts of coffee stains.

2. Catching References You Missed Before

Fiction is arguably a reflection of the time in which it was written. The social pressures, the shifting ideologies, and even the historical events. Novels speak volumes without meaning to and can be used to better understand the world in which the author lived. Whilst we may have read a book in our teenage years, we may not have fully understood the history of the time it was published.

Reading a book after time has passed can allow you to have a deeper understanding and collect more references to the world that existed outside the pages. Of course, no one will understand every reference in every book, but rereading usually allows us the opportunity to at least stretch out our new knowledge.

3. The Comfort of Returning to Beloved Stories

In an age of information overload, of an endless choice of series, films, and books, sometimes we prefer to go back to something we know. Our guilty pleasures, our tried-and-trues, that exude the warm comfort of a childhood bed after a long day of school. Most readers of fiction will agree that sometimes a protagonist feels like more than just an imagined character; they were important to us and the people we grew into.

People often forget to acknowledge how influential books are on our development, how certain characters may teach us to be courageous, clever, or kind. Feeling heard and understood is such an important and rare moment in a person’s life, and it should be held onto. 

When a piece of literature makes a person feel recognized, then it only makes sense for it to be read over and over again. If we have moments where we forget ourselves, then we can turn to the books that saw us when no one else did.  Even when our world does not feel safe, when every day brings more breaking news, reading can become our solace.

It can sweep us away from this land of the unknown and surround us with a world we have been before, a world that does not ask anything of us except to enjoy.

4. Rereading as a Journey Through Memory

Books are good for you, for your brain, and even your personal development. That is why, in high school, we are made to read the classics, the types of books that challenge a growing mind and even a grown mind. We read them, or at least said that we did, and got the summary of it from a friend, but didn’t let the words sink in.

No matter how hard you try, you may just not be at the right time in your life to understand a certain piece of art. It is only upon revisiting it that we have the life experience to grasp what was really going on. More importantly, rereading a book from long ago gives us an insight into something even greater: ourselves.

5. Discovering How We’ve Changed Through Rereading

It is often through reading that we discover who we truly are and which characters we relate to. Oscar Wilde once said that “To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim“. Here, Wilde suggests that perhaps our interpretation of a piece of art should reveal more about us than it reveals about the artist. Picking up a book we once read when we were a different version of ourselves may reveal a lot about the changes we have made since then. Do we feel the same?

Have we outgrown some of the characters? Do we understand more deeply the conflicts within? Unlike what some will have you believe, people do change, but usually on such a small, gradual basis that it slips by them unnoticed. Rereading provides a kind of mirror, a gateway into being able to see all the progress we have made from the earlier versions of ourselves, and it serves as a reference that there will be more progress to come.

Final Thoughts: The Art of Rereading Books

Rereading is not just a ‘guilty pleasure’ but an art known only by those who practice it. We have our whole lives to discover new books, but rereading provides gateways into ourselves only accessible through the worn pages of our favorite books.

The post Why Re-reading Hits Different the Second Time Around appeared first on Magazine.

The benefit of reading is arguably one of the world’s few absolutes; one of the few things we know for sure is vital for emotional, mental, and psychological well-being. More than this, reading shapes our brains for the better.

A Brief History of Literacy

Around five thousand years ago, in the civilization of Mesopotamia, exist the first traces of literacy and reading. First there were symbols, then words, and eventually sentences. Humans needed a means to communicate, a means to codify knowledge and history for their own societies and the societies to come.

Reading is powerful – another absolute. We hear it all the time, how education is the key to better wellbeing, a combatant against inequality, and a means to a better life and understanding of the world. It is empowerment embodied, and its worth should never be undervalued.

How Reading Shapes the Brain

The benefit of reading is not limited to academic pieces or scholarly articles. Whether your hands are clutching a fictitious Stephen King thriller or a weathered copy of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, your brain will thank you for it. Scientists have studied the brain extensively, looking at what activities and stimulus light up what areas of the brain.

When we read, our brain is like the New York City skyline. Bright, illustrious, and engaged. Reading activates several areas of your mind, with some studies suggesting that the further you read into a book, the more stimulated the brain becomes. These activations don’t just appear during the process of reading but persist for even days after. The benefits are there to stay. 

The Boston Children’s Hospital conducted research that found reading could create new neural networks and improved neural circuity in the brain. Simply put, reading literally deepens the brain’s comprehension, memory, and problem-solving skills. Not only is it a fascinating and engaging activity, but it is undoubtedly one of the best ways to protect your brain.

Reading in the Age of Short Attention Spans

While modernity might have brought access to a plethora of information, it has shrunk our attention spans. News stories are often understood by their headlines, topics broken down into palatable pieces, but a deeper comprehension of the topics and events is lacking. Reading allows your brain space to breathe, space to truly understand, and consider a topic. It slows us down, reiterating that genuine understanding is better than the stress and misunderstanding that come with surface-level knowledge. Reading, whether it is a book or an article, is a sanctuary for our minds.

Building Vocabulary Through Books

The modern world has been praised and criticized for its ‘progress’, but a society dependent on electronic instantaneity is one prone to abbreviation and shortcuts. Technology is shrinking our vocabulary, but reading might just be our secret weapon. There are only so many words we will encounter within our daily lives, but literature opens our brains up into a multiverse of possibilities.

Many writers are pioneers of language; playwright William Shakespeare was said to have created close to 2,000 new words in his lifetime. Lacklustre, majestic, and lonely would not have existed without the brilliance of Shakespeare. More importantly, no one would have learnt these words had Shakespeare’s plays not been performed, read, and studied.

Reading as a Tool for Emotional Expression

Having a large vocabulary is not just advantageous for impressing at a dinner party, but is vital for strong listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Creativity requires a toolkit, as do feelings. How we exist may be clear to us in the safety of our minds, but what happens if we need to express our thoughts and feelings? To be human is to communicate, and a wide vocabulary is one of our armories.

Think of a child learning how to discuss complex emotions, who wants to tell their parents clearly how they feel. The books they read and the vocabulary they are exposed to undoubtedly allow them to use words that do not just generalize but allow others to truly understand and empathize with their mindsets.

Why Reading Will Always Matter

Reading is our lifeblood, it distinguishes us from other animals and allows us not only to keep knowledge but to develop existing ideas. The world’s first civilization, Mesopotamia, understood the power of reading, even when it was not considered a fundamental human right. Not only is it the key to worldwide empowerment, but it is, on an individual level, one of the most vital ways to promote our own wellbeing and happiness. 

A last absolute, though perhaps this one is up for debate, is that our desire to be understood can only be realized with the words needed to express our feelings and realities. Reading is so powerful because it allows us to first learn and understand the world, and in turn, to have a chance for the world to understand us.

The post What Really Happens to Your Brain When You Read appeared first on Magazine.

The prefrontal cortex, or the area of the brain required for decision-making, solving problems, and emotional regulation, is far more developed in humans than the animals. It is the distinguishing factor, the difference, and it means we are the world’s greatest critical thinkers. 

AI’s Promise and Peril

Artificial intelligence has become somewhat of a bogeyman, a buzzword traversing around social and internet circles. ChatGPT, in particular, has made headlines after its release into the public sphere. People see the service as an opportunity; it can plan holidays, help you start a business, and navigate a difficult legal system for you. ChatGPT is clever, if by clever we mean it has access to more information than the human brain can handle, and it is talented in providing an answer for almost everything. Sounds like a dream, right?

Artificial intelligence, whilst a mark of progress in many respects, has also brought about a lot of fear. Science fiction novels speak of worlds where robots and artificial intelligence develop a kind of consciousness of their own and attempt to take over the world from humankind. Then there is another kind of fear, not of an attack on the world itself, but an attack on that so-important essence of humanity: our critical thinking.

The Risk of Cognitive Offloading

Like any other area of the body, the brain is a muscle that needs to be stretched and developed. We need to learn how to use our brains; they require exercise and challenge. The problem prophesied with AI is that it may erode our skills in critical thinking. This isn’t just a hypothesis; recent studies have confirmed that a higher reliance on AI is linked to diminished critical thinking skills.

The story worsens when we think of the younger generations who have become particularly reliant on technology. Yes, ChatGPT can find you some great dinner spots in Rome, but it can also do your homework, it can tell you whether you should break up with your husband, and it can do all the thinking for you without having any of the necessary experience or nuance to provide critical answers.

It becomes second nature to ask AI the moment we have a question, where perhaps, in the past, our brains would have been fully capable of considering the answers ourselves. Even if we disregard the environmental aspects of frequent AI giants, we cannot turn away from the idea that AI is actively reducing the skills humans have always needed to utilize our intelligence. 

The point is not to be defeatist; it is not a subject devoid of hope. Of course, AI can be used as a tool if wielded correctly. More importantly, however, there is an activity that may fight against this cognitive offloading, and force us to, enjoyably, stretch our brain a little – reading.

What Literature Teaches Us About Decision-Making

Literature does not often spell the answers out for us; instead, it allows us to read a story and then question what this narrative may be alluding to. It asks us to consider, and, more importantly, to make our own decisions about what outcomes we draw. Many readers have come across a book that fundamentally changes the way they see the world, as they have also come across a book that contrasts their own values.

Reading makes us cleverer, not always by the content itself, but in the consideration of it. The data backs this up, arguing that reading, especially in the literary genre, does in fact encourage cognitive development and critical-thinking skills. We are introduced to complex characters who are neither good nor bad, who could be classed as heroes or antiheroes, or villains.

Great philosophers, like Ayn Rand or Albert Camus, have used literature as a means to discuss their philosophical views on the world. Readers do not always agree with these views, but they are forced to consider them as they read.

The Last Defense: Why We Must Keep Thinking for Ourselves

Parents use reading as an early means of encouraging critical thinking. Mothers will ask their children whys and hows to allow their children not to just accept the information, but to ponder it. For humans, this is the equivalent of helping our children grow sharp fangs, thick skin, it is to develop their defenses and their potential.

For adults, reading becomes arguably even more of a critical challenge. Our minds and opinions are our own, and it means finding ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ in situations and characters is all the more difficult. Yes, artificial intelligence is a potential enemy against the critical thinking mind, but perhaps we can take this as an opportunity to fight against it. To get lost in literature as a means of pleasure and preservation, and to do the one thing ChatGPT will never be able to do – to think.

The post Is AI Quietly Eroding Our Ability to Think? And How Books Can Save It appeared first on Magazine.

Many creatives have traversed these rules and disobeyed such ideals. Abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky argues that painting and music are inexplicably connected, saying, ‘Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings.’ Art is enhanced by other art; it sets the mood for both creation and reception. And listening to music, most certainly, can enhance the emotional power of reading.

The Shared Goal of All Art: Evocation

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake may feel like fingers brushing your skin, pulling at your chest with both love and despair. A feeling like this, an evocation, often leads to an idea or an expression of such emotion. Art, in whatever medium, is a special kind of magic that has reflected the thoughts and mindsets of both the watcher and author, facilitating a kind of connection that is deep and perhaps a little mysterious.

We may not all identify as the Van Goghs, Cézannes, or Bachs of the world, but that does not leave us separate from the art itself. Arguably, art would not exist without a viewer. Reading, or listening, or watching is a participation in the art; it is feeding its hungry, desperate soul, by evoking.

As consumers of art, or perhaps the ingénues themselves, we have an important role to play. That is, to consume and interact with a work with as much passion and conviction as possible.

Music as an Emotional Companion to Literature

Here we come to our main argument: we need music for reading. Alright, perhaps it is controversial to mix your poisons. You may even hear that to do both at once reduces the experience and potency altogether. Forget that. Of course, if you cannot read while listening to music then this argument isn’t for you. We’ve heard it said that music is not conducive to studying or concentrating, but reading for pleasure is something entirely different.

For all of us avid readers, we know that certain books evoke certain emotions. Similar to how smelling pine readies you for Christmas, sometimes listening to certain thematic music can deepen the connection to a book.

One may ready themselves by listening to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor before embarking upon the next chapter of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or a Dark Academia Classical Music playlist before reading Donna Tart’s The Secret History. Reading is an experience, and whether we intend to or not, it makes us feel something. 

A writer wants their words to be felt, truly, deeply, and honestly. The best way to pay our respects to those who make the art is to create the conditions to feel it truly. When you go to Claude Monet’s Water Lilies collection in the Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris, you are asked to view it in silence, in respect to the artist’s wishes.

Artists, most of them, anyways, envision the consumer as they create. Art is to be shared, interpreted, hated, loved, or questioned.  So when we listen to music, we allow that interaction to become all the greater, we really feel the plights of the characters, the themes woven between the words.

Soundtracks as Art: Music’s Role in Storytelling

Books themselves are often influenced by music, visual artists, or art periods. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel Daisy Jones and the Six focuses on the story of a rock band that rose to fame in the 1970s. That ‘70s soft-rock can be mimicked by listening to the likes of Fleetwood Mac, or even by listening to the soundtrack of the hit television show based on the novel.

Making soundtracks to television series, movies, and even games has become an art in itself. The Bridgerton soundtrack, a list of popular hits covered with classical violin, is a great soundtrack for period classics that feature balls and young, blooming love. What’s more, you know the songs, there are no lyrics to distract you, and it is simply beautiful.

Books are a form of transportation, and what better way to do that than by adding your own personalized soundtrack? Sure, Charlie Chaplin made some fascinating black-and-white silent films, but where would the history of cinematography be without an emotionally gripping, curated soundtrack?

Slower Living, Deeper Feeling: The Power of Intentional Leisure

The lives we lead often give way to the fast-paced expectations of the modern world. The type of world that tells us every free moment should be spent on work or their version of ‘self-betterment’ activities. Of course, these are important, but leisure and slower living are equally needed for a fuller feeling of happiness. 

Reading is a leisure activity that has been scientifically shown to fight against depression and anxiety and enhance our imagination and creativity. Taking a breath and actually enjoying the things we love doing, without that nagging feeling of guilt, is essential to our growth and our own happiness. Honoring our love of reading by putting on a complementary soundtrack and letting ourselves experience the thrill of the novel pays homage to the art, the artist, and most importantly, to ourselves.

After all, what good is a masterpiece in an empty gallery, or a concerto with an audience of ghosts? Loving art is not just saying it is good, but by allowing it to evoke something within us, something that makes us see why it is not just essential, but undoubtedly human.

The post How the Right Soundtrack Can Transform Your Reading Experience appeared first on Magazine.

The spaces that encompass not exactly ‘everything else’ but are the areas that allow for social connection and the creation of art and ideas. The third spaces of the world are hard to describe; they sit like new words waiting for definition, but one thing is certain – they are vital to a functioning social community.

What Are Third Spaces and Why Do They Matter?

In the 1980s, American sociologist Ray Oldenburg officially coined the term ‘third spaces’ in his book The Great Good Place. According to Oldenburg, the third place is that which exists outside the home (the first space) and the workplace (the second space). These social surroundings, or third spaces, are places where people can spend time exchanging ideas, enjoying social company, and building communities.

In fact, third spaces are perhaps the reason why Europe seems to be the travel destination for many of those living in Western countries. Countries like Australia and North America are not designed for pedestrians and are thus somewhat devoid of the abundance of third spaces in their cities. Travelers are often in awe of the ease and prevalence of the third space in people-centric cities they travel to.

Civilians aren’t restricted to the areas designated for their existence; they are now designing the rulebook. They are sprawled in dimly-lit alleyways with half-drunken bottles of red wine, sitting tensely on park benches with a stressful game of chess, making their own parameters for vital, and unexpected, human connection.

Europe’s Secret: Cities Designed for Connection

Parisians are notoriously known for their tiny living apartments, or ‘shoeboxes’. Many Parisians have a single room that includes a bed, a kitchenette, and sometimes a bathroom. People could not exist like this unless there were also third spaces. Winter or summer, sun or rain, you’ll find the Parisians sprawled on terrasses, parks, by the Canal Saint-Martin, creating their own spaces for connection.

You can sit at a brasserie and nurse a café espresso while reading your book, people-watching, maybe even while intermittently talking to the people at the table beside you. These spaces exist because you exist within them; they only arise when a person or a group of people enter them and provide them with meaning.

Designing Cities for People, Not Cars

Third spaces are seen most often in pedestrian-friendly cities, where the spaces are designed for people, not for cars. Yes, it makes transport and parking a little bit of a nightmare, but people-centric cities also create communities that are not restricted to private spaces. Making new social connections – whether this includes friends, romances, or just an acquaintance – must be carefully planned and considered in our modern age.

We have online dating and friend-making applications, workplaces, and bars where we expect to find a certain type of person. In third spaces, however, people are more likely to talk to the people sitting beside them. The third space is not closed; therefore could be understood as an open invitation for connection.

The Biology of Belonging: Why We Crave Community

We could draw it further back, to biology, by asking ourselves how humans are really meant to exist. Countless studies and scientific agreement drive home to us that humans are inherently social beings who crave connection. Like other social animals, we have always been designed for community living. Sure, we need solitary time, but our happiness depends strongly on a stable sense of community.  Third spaces allow for more casual connections, for building a community of people in our everyday lives.

No, these do not have to be the people you’d call your best friends, but perhaps the local owner of the wine bar at the end of your street, or your neighbors who always read in your local park with their little boy. The people who recognize you and make you feel seen and heard, and human. The people who give real, tangible meaning to the word ‘community.’

Third Spaces Through History: From Agoras to Instagram

There has rarely been a civilization in history that has not known the art of the third space. Almost all societal socializing, especially for the lower and middle classes, was done in outside spaces. In Ancient Rome, the forums served as social and economic hubs. Before this, in Ancient Greece, people gathered in large public spaces, known as ‘agoras,’ to host markets or assemblies. In modern cities, notably pedestrian-centric cities like Florence or Paris, the strong tradition of third spaces has continued.

When the Third Space Disappeared

A world without third spaces is an isolating one, as humanity found out during the 2019 pandemic. Italy, a country thriving with a community-based system of living, was one of the hardest hit. Being one of the first locations of a major COVID-19 outbreak, Italy entered a harsh and restrictive lockdown, meaning being almost completely limited to their first spaces. Perhaps for some other nations, this would have been more doable.

For cities used to life with third places, however, this was an adjustment that was anything but easy. The Italians resisted. They persisted and made themselves heard by finding a way to connect despite the isolation: through music. Videos emerged on social media of Italians hanging out their windows in the warm afternoons, singing songs and playing music for all the neighborhood to hear. Their musical protests against separation were not quiet, but they were joyful, loud, and human. 

This defiant persistence and creation of third places reminds us that, despite the changing of the times, the pandemic, and the challenges that face our societies, we persist. Humanity, like a little green weed between slabs of concrete, will always find the sun and continue to form our own boundaries for life and the pursuit of connection.

The post What Third Spaces Teach Us About Real Human Connection appeared first on Magazine.

What is luxury? If you were to trace your fingers down the page of a dictionary, you’d find something like the Cambridge dictionary’s definition: ‘great comfort, especially as provided by expensive and beautiful things’.

This raises other questions: what can we consider expensive? Comfort? Like most discourse, it devolves into a wave of subjective understandings and a load of semantics that often prove confusing. So what is luxury, really? In a world focused on status and material goods, true wealth may come from non-material luxuries like time, peace, and personal growth.

Time – The Ultimate Luxury?

A luxury is then, perhaps, a thing that we cannot have too often, but is undeniably valuable in its fleeting nature. This type of luxury is not necessarily material and is most often enjoyed by those who search for the things that nourish their mind, bodies, and souls. Time, in its cruel nature, does not last.

It is finite, and therefore the most luxurious of things. On this rationale, it is perhaps how we choose to spend this most valuable of things that could be considered luxurious. Using the time that we have to feed our souls, develop our character, and live slowly yet purposefully.

Tsundoku: The Joy of Unread Books and Intellectual Intention

Tsundoku is a Japanese concept said to have originated around the Meiji period, between the mid-17th century and early 18th century. The earliest noted use of the word was to describe a ‘tsundoku sensei,’ the description of a teacher (sensei) who collects books that they never read.

Tsundoku is not used with negative intention; it is simply used to describe the phenomenon of accidentally surrounding yourself with unread books. Some may note that such a phenomenon screams materialistic; it is, after all, a collection of unused things. However, tsundoku has one thing that makes one vital difference – intention.

One who collects books has done so with the intention to read them, the intention to nourish their souls, learn more, and heal. The collection is accidental, and although the books may pile up, they have all been chosen to nourish and feed that inherent thing inside of us that yearns for wisdom.

Material Wealth vs. Meaningful Moments

Luxuries can be boring. Well, ‘boring’ as decided by social media and public opinion. It can be quiet, calm days, a tranquil mind, a home-cooked meal, or good conversation with a friend. Each human is a collection of moments, of memories; we are not the things we own, but the intentions we have and the relationships we harbor. The real luxuries in life are not born from the wealth of money, but of time and intention.

Many people work towards material wealth, as if becoming rich and famous is a marker of success. Financial security is a different topic entirely, that, of course, is a real luxury, but is separate from the quest for material things. Of course, these types of ‘luxuries’ can arguably bring us some fleeting contentment and appreciation. Yet they are not the deep kind of luxuries that nourish our minds and souls; they are not the real luxuries of the world.

Literary Escapism: Reinventing Ourselves Through Books

Perhaps our quest for material things can be remedied another way – through books. Literary escapism describes the phenomenon of using literature to escape the everyday and transport our minds to other worlds and realities.

Sometimes buying expensive things can be a cry for reinvention, a taste of a different life that we see broadcast on every social media platform. Literature and books can be a form of exploring and experiencing these types of lifestyles without needing to spend our time and money ‘earning’ the wealth to afford it.

Exploring worlds we cannot physically access, like the fantasy worlds created by authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin or George R. R. Martin, is arguably a luxury.

Further, literature can often offer a type of criticism or realism about chasing this kind of wealth, and perhaps remind us that wealth isn’t as glamorous as it is often portrayed. Scientific studies have not found a link between wealth and levels of daily happiness, suggesting that perhaps the secret to happiness is not this kind of material luxury.

Reframing Success: The Luxury of Purpose and Stillness

There are items that add to your economic capital, and then those that add and develop your intellectual capital. Embracing some tsundoku, even if it means ending up like the tsundoku sensei, can mean surrounding yourself with the constant possibility for intellectual development.

Having books around us, as well as the people we love and the time available to spend with them, can bring us the type of long-lasting happiness we must consider a luxury. In the end, it seems the most meaningful kind of wealth is not what we earn or own—but how we spend our time, and with whom. And what could be more luxurious than that?

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