/lit/ - Literature

What happened to reading?

At my universities library I walked through today and found ONE person actually reading a book (of about 100 or so), then two others reading a textbook. everybody else was on their laptops.
Walking back into the buses/living quarter area, everybody was walking with friends or on their smartphones
Come to think of it, I never see anybody reading. Not in the cafeteria either, everybody is sitting and socializing.
If people do read for pleasure, they don't do it in public. When they go on the internet they aren't looking for news. They are on reddit or facebook or other social media like 4chan. Outside of their classes everybody is completely detached from the world or intelligent thought (and even classes don't require enough of that - I mean come on, its just having the wherewithal to study for your exams and quizzes).
Nobody seems really interested in actually sharpening their critical or creative abilities outside of class at university - otherwise there'd be more people browsing through the books that are there, right? There must be people who do look up the academic journals that are online but judging by the friends I've made in my various classes they definitely aren't. All they care about is posturing and they can do this their entire careers. Really, it is completely possible. Just studying to the exam, kissing up to the right people.

So I guess what I'm getting at is where is that spark for knowledge? Questioning what is going on around you, why you are even going to university other than money later in life, just seems like people don't ask these questions. I know books aren't the only way to do this, but I mean I have a lot of trouble imagining that people are secretly pursuing knowledge and understanding and trying to become the best
even though they *say* they want to be the best, they really aren't working for it.

OK so I did read 80% of fahrenheit 451 today, but I think it really did open my eyes to how we function.

>>7056229
it's pretty clear you just don't hang around christians
In my life I have known a great many "christians" and a fair good number of actual christians.
you can find them by a certain genuine feeling to them, like you can just tell that they actually do care about changing their lives and helping other people

I just want to point that out, since everything you here on here is going to be atheists who think christianity is the worst thing ever and that everybody in it is a fake. that's just not the case. some people spend their entire lives as missionaries in shitholes for tiny compensation merely because they feel that is their calling

esp. with the christian groups here in college, the ones who get involved are actually legit (the pressure of having to go to church is gone once you move out, obviously. that's when I stopped attending and was able to stop pretending to be christian)

just felt like that needed to be pointed out to some people who seem to get so angry when they hear about christians

>>7030834
>tfw I replied accidentally to a namefag after turning off names
maybe I should just filter your kind

guess I just can't win huh, either way it's missing something, esp. what with recursive filtering

>>7003637
im sorry lad but I don't value myself as being in the Cool Kids Literary Club

if you don't believe me then I don't really care

>>6995119
my dad is dead and my mom wants me to drop out of college and go to the army

you don't have it that bad