And it sticks. I mean, focus your attention in that little world of meanings and symbols long enough and you’ll tend to get stuck there.
But reality is infinitely larger than that little world. So to stay there, in that little world, to have your perspective altered like that all the time, is a bit unhealthy and insane.
But this is considered normal. Encouraged even.
It kind of goes together with constructionism. Reality is what you perceive and it is proven to be a little different for every person. Colors are slightly different, sounds are different. So objective reality as such is not really a thing. By that logic writing it down and saying it were objective is kind of illogical.
But still, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. You for example would not be here if books didnt exist. Only through books is programming taught and the devs of lemmy and the fediverse are ample readers afaik.
I don’t deny the utility of the shared symbolic thing, be it the precise scientific engineeringly version or the rough common version. It is quite beside my point.
My point is the way of looking that reading involves and the habit that we fall into. That fixation upon the little screen in my head where symbols play. To narrow my attention to that screen permanently is a kind of chronic crouch, and to mistake that screen for reality is insane.
For the sufferer of this disease all of the senses dim while the screen grows brighter and brighter.
Why would you think that state is permanent? What do you do when you get to the end of a book or an article? Do you not ever stop reading to eat, sleep, or take a walk?
Well it does tend to stick. So if you repeat it within that sticking period then yes, it becomes the normal permanent mode. And memory of any alternative is lost.
But sure, not necessarily permanent.
I get your point but you’re taking the symptom for the disease.
Like every addiction (which this depicts imo), the system around it is the problem. The vast majority of people uses their devices massively to escape the bleak capitalfascist reality for some time.
We also have dismantled nearly all well working alternative systems under the disguise of “freedumb”.
You can trace back nearly every problem currently to that source. We need to get rid of it. Then the screen addiction goes too.
Whether you enter this state of “mental screen fixation” through personal preference or pressure from outside forces makes no difference in the state arrived at, surely.