When was the last time you picked up a book for fun? Or even an article? No – not one for class, not one for homework. But just to read, in your leisure.
I, personally, was just scarred by “Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins. I finally got a hold of the book and read it in three days. While going on this Hunger Games marathon, I asked myself what could have inspired Suzanne Collins to write such a horrific story.
I found an interview that answered my question. “The actual moment when I got the idea for The Hunger Games, I was lying in bed late at night and I was channel surfing. I found myself going in between reality television programs and footage of the Iraq War,” Collins said. “And these images began to meld together in my mind in a very unsettling way and that’s when it struck me: this idea for the games. I thought, if we take those and combine them, what do we get?”
One of my favorite childhood reads was not just a fictitious story, but a critique of war, media and power. At the time, I didn’t get it. But its message stuck with me. It shaped my values and eventually my politics – because birthplace shouldn’t dictate a person’s worth.
This story is uncomfortable, but while reading it, I realized I wasn’t afraid of that feeling. Yet, some people are. The American Library Association listed it No. 12 in its list of top 100 most banned and challenged books of the decade from 2010-2019.
Why am I bringing up banned books? Because this isn’t a new fight. In the 18th and 19th century, anti-literacy laws made it illegal to teach people of color to read – a deliberate act of oppression meant to suppress knowledge and maintain control.
Today, the tactics have changed along with the culture. Instead of laws, we have constructed anti-literacy norms that quietly erode our critical thinking skills: book banning and the rise of short-form content.
In no way do the two situations equate each other, but they reflect a deeply troubling pattern: efforts to limit access to knowledge and to discourage critical engagement.
Walk with me for a second. In research done to understand intelligence, researcher J.R. Flynn rediscover that each generation outgrows the previous in IQ testing. Now we understand that “The Flynn Effect is a phenomenon where each generation becomes progressively smarter than the last, typically result- ing in a 3.3% higher average IQ per decade.” Generation Alpha just broke that trend.This isn’t just a statistic – it’s a warning sign.
One factor must be how we currently consume information. TikToks, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts reward instant gratification and passive scrolling instead of active thinking and comprehension. Even with podcasts, we find other things to do while listening. It’s like our constant need for stimulation has numbed us to reality.
Which, for the record, it has.
Mark Travers, a psychologist, has stated, “Brain scans from the study revealed that people with higher short-video addiction had lower activity in a part of the brain called the ‘precuneus’ when thinking about potential gains.” Travers claims the significance of this finding is that “The precuneus helps you reflect and consider outcomes by thinking things through.” We’ve numbed our brains to risks and rewards.
Meanwhile, we’ve banned books, removing access to challenging and thought-provoking material – especially books that encourage critical thinking about identity, power, race and resistance. When young readers are “protected” from discomfort in literature, they lose the chance to build empathy and encounter viewpoints that differ from their own.
Reading, especially fiction, exercises the mind in ways no screen ever can. In a study from the National Institute of Health database, researchers found that reading activates a part of the brain that normally processes actual physical sensation – meaning the mind doesn’t just understand the story, we feel it.
When we lose the curiosity to reach for stories, we don’t just go quiet. We begin to drift into intellectual passivity. That’s not just an educational issue – it’s a political one.
