There is nothing like spending a free evening getting immersed in a good story. The means by which the narrators connect with their audience have changed drastically over the last decade. Movies and video games are as popular as books ever used to be. But that doesn’t mean reading is out of the picture. In fact, there are some aspects of it that simply cannot be replaced.
There is nothing like spending a free evening getting immersed in a good story. The means by which the narrators connect with their audience have changed drastically over the last decade. Movies and video games are as popular as books ever used to be. But that doesn’t mean reading is out of the picture. In fact, there are some aspects of it that simply cannot be replaced.
The sheer amount of written information we consume may surprise you. Most of it is just white noise that gets filtered out. Some of it are important technical data. But when it comes to mental stimulation, dry work guidelines or commercial slogans won’t cut it. Fiction is what will help you improve both your creative and technical thinking.
Technical texts are a very useful source of information. Online writing services like Essay Pro can provide you with pretty much any knowledge you would ever need. But the need for knowledge is not the only thing that reading has going for it. The power of narrative storytelling is a much more interesting and complex mechanism that is worth looking into.
The nature of both electronic and regular books provides a unique and efficient exercise for our minds. Unlike most modern art forms, books don’t have spectacular visuals designed and presented to you. The ideas are put in words that you have to process and transform into an image. This image is your own personal variation of the world you’re reading about.
Immersive storytelling itself can have a serious impact on our mood. Even if you’re not a book person, you have probably felt it while watching your favourite movie or TV show. The stories that unfold in front of us make us genuinely feel for the protagonists. Cheer for their victories and mourn for their losses. This influence can linger for weeks or even months, shaping our worldview.
A well-told story can also open our minds to consider possibilities we would not even be thinking of otherwise. Bonding with a fictional character can help you see the world from their viewpoint (which could be very different from your own). This can help you keep the mental flexibility and not get stuck in a local echo-chamber of opinions. The serious side of fiction can tackle serious social problems this way.
The story itself is just one part of a well-written book. The other part is the writing itself. Being invested in a page-turner, you’ll inevitably pick up on the phrases and structures used by the author. This will help you expand your vocabulary and become better at formulating your thoughts quickly and gracefully. A great way to combine entertainment with self-improvement.
This sort of stimulation of technical and creative thinking has an undeniably positive effect on our minds. In other words, written fiction helps to keep our brain in good shape, delaying mental ageing. Studies have shown that reading can slow down the decline of mental abilities with over a 30% success rate. In certain cases, it can even help with serious mental conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s.
So we’ve established the merit of written books. But what about audiobooks that are rapidly gaining popularity today? Do they have the same effect on your brain? The answer is ‘sort of but not really’. The principle of ‘tell, don’t show’ applies to audiobooks as much as to regular ones. But there are some crucial differences that are worth noting when comparing the two.
The main issue that separates these two types of books is, obviously, the way they present information. There is much more audial noise in our lives than there is a visual one. We are constantly drowning in sounds like cars or background chatter. Consistently concentrating on sound is harder than it is on visuals. You may hear the book without actually listening to it.
Today there are much information and entertainment sources that can replace books. They may seem like a more efficient and less time-consuming way to consume content. And they are. In the 21st century, keeping a quick pace is a way of life. But reading clearly has something more going for it other than the speed at which the information is consumed.
It is definitely worth it to spend at least one evening a week to take a break from Netflix and go for something more old-school. You will quickly find that there are far more books out there than movies or TV shows. Which makes for a virtually endless supply of stories to enjoy. Apart from that, there is a certain charm in spending a slow evening covered in blankets with a book in your hand.
- Guest post by Raymond Thomson.
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