Little miss fav

Young people need to read more books. It’s becoming an emergency. A lot of people cannot arrive at their own conclusions without first checking what everyone else thinks. They adopt popular opinions without interrogating them, cannot defend positions they claim to hold and struggle to stand for anything because they have never taken the time to think things through. I genuinely fear we are beginning to underestimate how important reading is to our intellectual development, and I worry that we are gradually losing our ability to think independently, process information and form coherent opinions about things. I see this a lot in interviews. People can only answer questions they have rehearsed. The moment an interviewer changes the wording or asks an unfamiliar question that requires actual reasoning, they become lost. You see it in everyday conversations, too, especially on this app. People struggle to understand context, interpret tone, recognise metaphors, detect sarcasm or follow nuanced arguments. Everything is taken literally, and people constantly respond to things that were never actually said. I think our consumption habits have something to do with this. We spend hours consuming short-form content but rarely dedicate time to reading, processing and engaging with complex ideas. Reading does more than improve your vocabulary. It strengthens comprehension, critical thinking, memory, attention span and your ability to articulate your thoughts. It teaches you to question information, consider opposing perspectives and arrive at your own conclusions. Please, read more fiction, history, philosophy, biographies and subjects outside your immediate interests. We need more young people who can think for themselves, defend their positions, understand the world around them and hold meaningful conversations. We don’t have enough independent thinkers and it’s a really huge problem.