I recently stumbled upon an article on Scriptorium Philosophia – hilariusbookbinder.substack.com – dealing with a phenomenon quite common today (something that I also see in my corner of the world) and a situation that is going to have an impact in the future. Here is the article:

https://hilariusbookbinder.substack.com/p/the-average-college-student-today

I was surprised by the fluidity of the text and the insightfulness (that is, the author has talent), as well as the good contact with reality (that is, the author has critical thinking), so I decided to share the article here (as you know, the threshold for sharing is quite high in my case, as something has to be really good so that I decide to recommend).

I also did some further research and it appears that the writer is Steven D. Hales, professor and chair of philosophy at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, in the United States. His page at the university is here: www.commonwealthu.edu/people-directory/steven-hales and he has also published some books according to his Amazon page here: www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IXRTIO. He also has a personal website here: https://stevenhales.org.

As someone who has written online for more than two decades and has read his entire life, the article was an eyeopener for me. It appears that reading and writing are becoming more and more a bunch of exotic or niche skills, something like calligraphy for instance: few people do it and only as some sort of alternative zen meditation through action. And I don’t think we are far away from seeing reading and writing as truly optional stuff – weird hobbies of a world long gone… It appears that people disregard the fact that the origin of creativity lies either in a life full of experiences (if you have enough courage or money), or in a lot of reading (that gives the knowledge or the database for that creativity). It also appears that people disregard the fact that being insightful or being able to think (and consequently make good decisions) requires effort, mental power, and reading/writing are a way to train that “mental muscle”…

Anyway, enjoy the work of this gentleman!