7 ms·

Too much TV was and is a real problem. I wasn't around for "too much radio". Sounds suspect. There wasn't that much programming available. Too many books? Pff

Too much TV was and is a real problem. I wasn't around for "too much radio". Sounds suspect. There wasn't that much programming available. Too many books? Pfft.

emodendroket 9y ago
People didn't use to consider it edifying to read any book whatever, no matter how unchallenging and hackneyed. Now adults pat themselves on the back for finishing a young adult novel that's 100 pages long.
7Z7 9y ago
“the girl who sits for hours poring over a novel to the damage of her eyes, her brain, and her general nervous system, is guilty of a lesser fault of the nature of suicide.” "[novel reading is] one of the most pernicious habits to which a young lady can be devoted. When the habit is once thoroughly fixed, it becomes as inveterate as the use of liquor or opium.” "I have seen two poor disconsolate parents drop into premature graves, miserable victims to their daughters' dishonour, and the peace of several relative families wounded, never to be healed again in this world. 'And was novel-reading the cause of this? inquires some gentle fair one... I answer yes!" "Girls are not apt to understand the evils of novel-reading, and may think it is only because mothers have outlived their days of romance that they object to their daughters enjoying such sentimental reading; but the wise mother understands the effects of sensational reading upon the physical organization, and wishes to protect her daughter from the evils thus produced... Romance-reading by young girls will, by this excitement of the bodily organs, tend to create their premature development, and the child becomes physically a woman months, or even years, before she should." - various sources
- Spivak 9y ago
  The medium changes, the message stays the same. * One should be careful to avoid the trap of using fiction as an escape from reality. * One's behavior can be influenced by the stories. * Stories allow one to experience another's life vicariously. Make sure they are equipped to understand and handle the experiences and pains of that life.

Too much TV was and is a real problem. I wasn't around for "too much radio". Sounds suspect. There wasn't that much programming available. Too many books? Pfft.

emodendroket 9y ago

People didn't use to consider it edifying to read any book whatever, no matter how unchallenging and hackneyed. Now adults pat themselves on the back for finishing a young adult novel that's 100 pages long.

7Z7 9y ago

“the girl who sits for hours poring over a novel to the damage of her eyes, her brain, and her general nervous system, is guilty of a lesser fault of the nature of suicide.” "[novel reading is] one of the most pernicious habits to which a young lady can be devoted. When the habit is once thoroughly fixed, it becomes as inveterate as the use of liquor or opium.” "I have seen two poor disconsolate parents drop into premature graves, miserable victims to their daughters' dishonour, and the peace of several relative families wounded, never to be healed again in this world. 'And was novel-reading the cause of this? inquires some gentle fair one... I answer yes!" "Girls are not apt to understand the evils of novel-reading, and may think it is only because mothers have outlived their days of romance that they object to their daughters enjoying such sentimental reading; but the wise mother understands the effects of sensational reading upon the physical organization, and wishes to protect her daughter from the evils thus produced... Romance-reading by young girls will, by this excitement of the bodily organs, tend to create their premature development, and the child becomes physically a woman months, or even years, before she should." - various sources

Spivak 9y ago
The medium changes, the message stays the same. * One should be careful to avoid the trap of using fiction as an escape from reality. * One's behavior can be influenced by the stories. * Stories allow one to experience another's life vicariously. Make sure they are equipped to understand and handle the experiences and pains of that life.