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Learning about the cultures of foreign people's thanks to X the digital town square

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch Sorry, it’s 3 am for me rn, but like is that not a similar mechanism of just not having the conditions where one is forced to exercise their brain like that in order to develop

@alehandsoap @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch pardon? do you mean they're engaging with text less bc they haven't been taught a solid foundation for reading? if so, yes, I think so

New in The Atlantic this morning: an extraordinary cover story by @rosehorowitch. If you’re generally only reading tweets, emails, texts, and machine-generated sentences, you should really, really read this story (and after that, a novel!): theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch But graphic novels do require less verbal comprehension to understand, and so their rise is potentially emblematic of a decreased expression of verbal skills

@alehandsoap @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch none of them are "substitutes" for any of them. it's important for young ppl to experience as many forms of art and narrative as possible, using as many sensory pathways as possible. but passage I quoted DOES present it as a(n inferior) substitute, which is what I take issue with

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch Okay but, aside from the like physiological impacts of COVID, is that not a function of a decreased amount of engagement with that sort of material through being given worse tools with which to do so?

@alehandsoap @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch I think the biggest explanations for decline in both retention and comprehension are the switch away from phonics in early grades to whole language only, instead of the hybrid approach that is actually shown to work, & ofc COVID disrupting both schooling & their actual brains.

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch Where I then just want to reiterate that graphic novels are fantastic works of art, I fucking love comics, but again that’s not a good substitute for reading on its own

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch So if we see this trend of people reading less of things that stimulate that part of the brain associated with robust learning that is a potential explanation for this associated decline in retention

@melliellimelli @branewurms @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch Cmon man, it’s 2026, read and comprehend that pronouns exist

@branewurms @alehandsoap @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch Ok "she/they/it", carry on😂

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch And so if people as a whole are engaging less with works that make their point solely through the carefully planned ordering of words, it’s harder to develop that skill

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch How is that what you got from that The topic is reading comprehension, obviously engaging with art is good for visual skills, but we still articulate our thoughts about art through words

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch Is the tweet you’re responding to not me literally trying to clarify that?

@alehandsoap @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch okay, if you say so, but this sounds like an argument, not agreement? x.com/i/status/20754…

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch Which part? Because I was extrapolating from the study in the article that showed children’s brains showed less activity being shown a video than being read out loud to with still pictures, where they needed to do slightly more work to visualize the story

@alehandsoap @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch that's absurd and based on nothing.

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch As in I agree with you, they are reading and so that’s not the conclusion I’m advocating for

@alehandsoap @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch as an argument against what? I literally just argued that audiobooks are still reading.

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch E.g, I’m not an expert, but I imagine blind people are better able to focus on receiving information auditorily And on the first topic, graphic novels requiring less from you to conjure the story’s image result in less sticking bc that work of imagination was already part done

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch It feels like you’re arguing against the position that audiobooks are an invalid form of receiving writing or something, but I’m just trying to say that whichever method allows more allocation of brainpower to the act of reading results in more for your brain to latch onto

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch I think we’re, like, talking past each other here, I’m agreeing with you that comprehension is harder with audio: It’s easier to get the superficial words but it’s harder to engage with it as a whole, and as we move more towards post-literate stuff we lose that engagement

@alehandsoap @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch and what does any of this have to do with declining reading comprehension in the first place?

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch And that usually the things we put more effort into tend to stick with us better

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch Never said that, it’s definitely not, Braille is an insane writing system I’m saying there’s definitely a difference in the input of effort needed to be able to achieve the effect of “reading” between all of these systems, Braille even more so than visual

@branewurms @melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch I think a blind person would be able to tell you there’s a difference between audiobooks and Braille regarding the attention required

@melliellimelli @AdrienneLaF @rosehorowitch listening to an audiobook is reading, lmao. saying blind ppl don't read is hella weird shit, buddy