Books, brains and the battle for attention

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, King Abdullah II of Jordan raised a poignant concern about the state of global discourse: technology is radically shortening human attention spans. He noted that the average screen attention has plunged from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds today. This fragmentation of attention, primarily driven by people being glued to smartphones, has sparked a global debate. Is the age-old habit of deep reading truly dying, or is it simply transforming into a new digital avatar? On one hand, data supports the king’s warning. The physical act of immersive reading—the slow, focused absorption of literature—faces unprecedented competition from micro-content and algorithmic feeds. On the other hand, the global volume of reading material consumed digitally via e-readers and smartphones is at an all-time high. The crisis may not be a lack of reading but a loss of the depth that historically shaped humanity’s greatest leaders. Throughout history, deep reading has been the ultimate crucible for effective leadership. Leaders on both national and international stages did not read merely for leisure; they read to construct their worldviews, stress-test ideas, and build empathy.On the international stage, Winston Churchill remains a towering figure whose leadership was built entirely on a foundation of literature. As a young officer in India, Churchill spent hours devouring the works of Edward Gibbon and Thomas Macaulay. This self-education forged his masterful command of the English language, a skill that later allowed him to rally a nation against tyranny during World War II. For Churchill, reading was an active dialogue with history.Similarly, Abraham Lincoln, growing up in absolute poverty, walked miles just to borrow a book. His deep engagement with the King James Bible, Shakespeare, and Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England did more than teach him the law; it gave him the moral vocabulary to navigate the American Civil War and articulate the foundational principles of human liberty.Nelson Mandela turned to books during his 27-year imprisonment on Robben Island. Literature, including William Ernest Henley’s poem Invictus and political philosophy, served as a psychological fortress. Reading allowed Mandela to maintain his dignity, understand his oppressors, and design a peaceful transition to democracy for South Africa.Nationally, India’s architectural foundations were laid by voracious readers. B R Ambedkar possessed a personal library of over 50,000 books, making it one of the largest private collections in the world at the time. His profound understanding of economics, law, sociology, and global history—gleaned from ceaseless reading—allowed him to champion social justice and craft a resilient legal framework for a diverse nation.Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, wrote his seminal work, The Discovery of India, while incarcerated in Ahmednagar Fort. The book itself is a testament to his extensive reading. Nehru’s literary immersion enabled him to synthesise centuries of complex heritage into a coherent vision for a modern democratic State.More recently, A P J Abdul Kalam epitomised the modern reader-leader. His home in Rameswaram and later his official quarters were lined with thousands of books spanning poetry, science, and philosophy. He frequently urged the youth to step away from distractions and cultivate reading, calling books ‘permanent companions’ that build character.The anxiety shared by King Abdullah II and educators worldwide is valid: the cognitive patience required for deep reading is under assault. When we substitute books entirely with algorithmic feeds, we risk developing ‘pancake minds’ — wide and thin, but lacking depth. Technology is not the enemy of the word. Devices can democratise knowledge, allowing a child in a remote village to access the same literary treasures as a student in Oxford. The solution lies in intentionality. The great leaders of the past carved out spaces for silence and study amid chaos. Today’s challenge is to build a digital discipline where smartphones are used as gateways to long-form knowledge, rather than engines of distraction. True literacy in the 21st century means knowing when to scroll and when to close the screen and open a book. The future of reading will not be decided by the disappearance of books but by the choices we make with our attention. Deep reading remains indispensable because it teaches us to linger, question, imagine, and think beyond the immediate. In an age of relentless notifications, the ability to sustain attention may itself become a form of intellectual courage. The leaders of tomorrow will need not less reading but deeper reading.(The writer is a Delhi-based journalist)

Source: Deccan Herald