In my opinion, a society’s strength depends on how well its citizens can think critically. In a world where media moves fast and information is constantly distorted, the ability to read deeply is what allows us to slow down, compare perspectives, and question what we’re told. Reading has always been at the heart of that ability. Yet today, as screens fragment our attention, we are losing the practice that once protected us from manipulation. Media today is designed to move fast and think for us. In such a climate, the habit of critical reading becomes a form of defence. To stop reading deeply is not just to lose focus; it is to lose a form of resistance.
Many people still read. However, they limit themselves to self-help books that promise success and control but rarely teach readers compassion or how to think analytically. The kind of reading that unsettles us and forces us to experience different lives or ideas is what cultivates critical thinking. Without this, we are left vulnerable to those who manipulate language and emotion for power. Propaganda thrives on a public unaccustomed to questioning what it’s told.
As I mentioned earlier, reading is an act of resistance. A novel may demand that we inhabit another person’s mind and sit with ambiguity. A memoir may ask us to see how people make sense of their own lives. Every sentence we unpack, every motive we examine, is an exercise of discernment. Reading teaches us to detect contradictions, notice tone, grasp the arguments and agree or disagree with the author. Those are the same skills we need to navigate a media landscape where the truth is blurred.
The danger lies not in encountering the wrong ideas but in losing the ability to recognize them as such. A mind that never practices analysis becomes easy to persuade.
This is why self-help culture can be so devious: it makes us feel in control while discreetly narrowing our scope. These books can transform us, but often by turning our gaze inward. They teach confidence, not skepticism; clarity, instead of complexity. Novels, history, or biographies disrupt the self. They invite doubt, contradictions, and moral reflections. They teach us to pay attention and to think beyond our own comfort zones.
When reading declines, misinformation thrives. We scroll through headlines designed to provoke, not inform. Without the patience and skepticism that deep reading builds, citizens lose the ability to recognize when language is being used as a weapon.
What, then, should we do? The answer is both simple and demanding: we must read, and we must encourage others to read. Read widely, across genres and perspectives. Read fiction that unsettles you, biographies that humble you, stories that disturb you. Give children the gift of reading not as a chore but as a doorway to the world. We owe it to ourselves, and to one another, to read not only for escape, but for clarity. Every book that makes us slow down and think, every idea that challenges our certainty, is an act of resistance against manipulation. Reading trains the mind to remain free in a world that profits from our distraction.