I am not a prophet, but I suspect (and cannot know) that we will become or already are a non-literary society. And that a sub-group (pastors, classical school kids, educators, etc.) will continue to value the life of the mind.

I think we are seeing the end of reading as a societal activity. Most younger people and many older people no longer read much at all. The new media is highly visual and auditory—short clips, podcasts, TV, etc.

But that does not mean key groups of people will still read. But I suspect it will be a reading subset of the population who value ideas, intellectual work, etc.

When I say “read,” I do not mean the ability to discern the sounds of the alphabet on the page. I grant that people will use social media to read in this way.

I am talking about sitting down for two hours to read an argument from beginning to end. Maybe much of this will simply shift to podcasts and YouTube. But given the tendency to go to short-form media like TikTok, I doubt it.

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