The mental distinction between reading books and watching movies

It's surprising to me how many people love movies and spend no time reading books. It's especially surprising when you consider how many movies are based on popular books. One of the very sharp distinctions between books and movies, and one of the experiences that books offer that movies do not, is that novels allow readers to participate in the telling of the story in ways that moviegoers cannot. Allow me to explain.

[xyz]

I wish more people could understand that. The world of imagination is just beautiful.

[TheVCRTimeMachine]

The more I read, the less interest I have had in movies.

[ravigupta]

This is very single video on YouTube about this topic, thank you

[MettaLovingKindness]

I have experienced the activation of dormant parts of my brain when reading fiction books. Reading is an active experience and requires a lot of mental energy. On the other hand i can easily watch a netflix series passively for 10 hours lying down on bed which requires no mental enegry and also it leaves you depressed at the end. I would encourage everyone to read epic fantasy books such as Ship of magic, Game of thrones . Thank you for this.

[yawninghamster]

I like books more than movies overall. I get bored quickly, but engaging my imagination is one of the best ways I mitigate that. It's why Sims and RPGs are my favorite genres of video games, too.

Why do I like books more than movies? If I start getting bored or tired while reading, I put the book down for a while and return to it later. That's the beautiful thing about video games with save points, too. While it's technically not impossible to do that with a movie, it seems wrong. They're designed to be consumed in one gulp. Not so with books. I prefer to take time with media pieces rather than binging things in one go. I like to think deeply about things, not consume one piece of media after another. Not to mention, I get dizzy and sick from shaky cam effects, zooming in and out too much, and 3D (with the glasses) movies. I never get sick while reading words on a page. Words don't move. Only my eyes do.

In fact, I strongly prefer books; however, it's not fair to argue that movie lovers are less intelligent than book lovers, or that movies are worse than books, or vice versa. I believe wholeheartedly those claims are BS. Why can't everyone admit that they have a preference and leave it at that? That's what intelligent, mature adults would do, as opposed to egotistical know-it-alls.

[Toby-rjtm]

I love movies but rarely get emotionally attached to the characters. I engage with the characters on the page, grow to love (or loathe) them, and follow them through the journey(predetermined through the writer's imagination). I find characters on-page to be more relatable than on screen because you're there with them. You see what makes them tick (in many cases), unlike movies where you get about an hour and a half with them as a whole. I like movies as an independent platform, but I don't like seeing books interpreted on screen. They feel force-fed. Some movies, not all, can also lose the soul of the book in translation.

[AmeerFazal]

Fluent reading requires a lot of practice. A fluent reader can read and understand ideas 5 - 10 times faster than watching a video. The information density is very high in a written text.

[phillipchavez]

Wow, great video👍
📝
"Reading is more mentally engaging"
"Reading requires imagination." <---keyword: requires.

[Katkiwi]

Reading engages us. We experience emotional responses to the story in a way as though it's happening to us. A movie is watched, we are moved to feelings but from point of view of a viewer. The lack of mental energy required makes the mind disregard a film as less important and why a lot of movies are easily forgettable

[istriver.]

Reading creates suspense and anticipation and imagination naturally comes and plays its part.

[j.j.]

The cognitive benefits of reading a paper book are well known and outweigh the watching of TV. This is a proven fact.
I have friends who argue the opposite, however I related that I watched the film, "Shindlers List" before I read the book and the difference to me was obvious. I challenged them to read the book as well but they declined which for me was a self fulfilling prophesy. People who have strong opinions but who do not read are basically lazy and form their opinions on the objectivity of others instead of forming their own. Reading allows you to pause, ponder, and objectify and spot flaws in arguments far easier than watching tv presentations. Films often exclude much information that the written word presents leaving the watcher less informed and easier to manipulate. Dictators and elitists hate a well informed and educated proletariat as they are easier to control. Joseph Stalin once said If you can control what people believe, you can control how they act. Hence Tv is a friend of a dictator.

[TariqMK]

Its very true. Reading has in fact refined my taste in movies. I cant watch anything that isn't really well made with a lot of meaning anymore, and I am better for it.

[Jasna]

i dont like movies, im bookworm. i need to mentally participate not just watch others imaginations

[julijakeit]

I love books. In that way I get to 'create' my own movie in my mind, I can even be the main character.

[hugo-garcia]

I watched Harry Potter first and then read the books. While reading my brain could not imagine the characters I always went back to the movie on my head. That is horrible

[violetistired]

to me watching movies has always felt kind of empty in a sense.

[sherifnabil]

Now I understand why the new Final Fantasy series are a failure. They used to offer the book experience but now they’re more like movies.

[ChineesArteFacts]

This really depends on each person. There are people who is visual.. who understand things if its being shown.

[clinthuff]

Video games and tv cannot compete with books i love it. I feel like im there like im a hologram watching everything takes place

[given]

Very nice video and I appreciate that you didn't say books are superior to movies because I recently had the opportunity to write a piece of fiction and I became lost at a certain point when I wanted to show a specific emotion in the eye of a character and the smile that played on his lips. So, even as an avid reader, I think both mediums are important for different types of expressions. (Before writing myself, I really thought books were superior.)