A Return to Slow Food

I read yesterday's Wall Street Journal and wondered who I knew that received a regular paper delivery. We cancelled our subscription many years ago declaring it a waste of money because we didn't read it regularly. Today while reading The Age of American Unreason authored by Susan Jacoby, I noted my time constraints are symptomatic of a greater pandemic. Ms. Jacoby reports:

'In Everything Bad is Good for You, technophile Steven Johnson argues that yes, we're spending less time reading literary fiction, but that's because we're spending less time doing everything we used to do before...because a dozen new activities have become bona fide mainstream pursuits in the past ten years: the Web, e-mail, games, DVDs, cable-on-demand, text chat. We're reading less because there are only so many hours in the day...If reading were the only cultural pursuit to show declining numbers, there might be cause for alarm...As long as reading books remains part of our cultural diet, as long as the new popular forms continue to offer their own cognitive rewards, we're not likely to descend into a culture of mental atrophy anytime soon.'

Beyond our dwindling free time, this quote pointed to a greater concern: what mediums we choose for our intellectual stimulation. Mr. Johnson’s use of “mental atrophy” implies that it makes no difference what our minds feed on, so long as it continues to be stimulated. Using that logic I could argue that McDonald’s Value Meals fulfill my caloric intake requirements, so I’m not likely to experience any type of health deterioration anytime soon. While I’m no Luddite, I stand firmly in the belief that fast food in the way of intellectual stimulation will leave our minds simultaneously flabby and emaciated.