Reader vs. Consumer
From John Warner:
“It happened slowly, and I’ve probably helped contribute to the shift, but much more energy has gone towards articles on “What people are reading” in general, than what happens to people when we read.
There’s obviously nothing wrong with recommending books. I do it as part of my column every single week, hopefully in a way that doesn’t fall prey to recommendation culture, but when recommending books is the entirety of book culture, well…we don’t have a book culture anymore.
We become consumers of content, rather than readers of books. I would argue (and have argued) that the chief identity for the American of this era is a “consumer.”
