Want to make a difference in society? Start by reading a book.

If you’ve made it this far into the year and are still maintaining your New Year’s resolutions, congratulations!

But if you, like most of us, have already failed at these efforts of reform, take heart. There’s still time to make changes, even small ones. And my suggestion for that small change is that you start by choosing one book to read this year.

There are lots of reasons for this, but one is that you’ll be one-upping “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books,” to quote a headline which ran late last year in “The Atlantic.” Apparently, today’s schools are feeding students such small snippets of reading material that by the time they reach college, many are too overwhelmed by the thought of reading an entire book.

Unfortunately, picking up a book and getting all the way through it is harder than one might realize, especially in our digital age. Writer Joel Snape testifies to this fact in a recent article for “The Guardian,” explaining that he forcibly had to extract himself from social media and make himself get through Jane Austen’s classic book “Emma.”

I did the same about a decade ago, ironically using “Emma” to do so as well. Realizing that I’d grown conditioned to reading snippets on social media or skimming news articles, I knew I had to stop wasting my time and challenge myself to read something meatier. But doing so required forcing myself to sit down for at least half an hour at a time.

Setting this goal prevented me from popping up to go check social media after a page or two, thus giving me a long enough segment of time to get sucked into the book and begin enjoying it. Before I knew it, the book that was a bear became a delight, something for which I gladly skipped social media.

Are there more benefits to reading solid, full-length books than simply patting yourself on the back or lengthening your Goodreads list? The answer is yes.

For starters, reading books gives you solid conversation material. Many of us are tired of treading the dangerous realm of politics and simply want to have a fun, meaningful conversation. Picking up a book solves this, giving you intriguing snippets to share, while also enabling you to ask others – guilt-free – what they’re reading and for their takeaways. Extra points if you can relate what you read to some cultural phenomenon occurring today!

Second, reading books pulls you away from the noisy world of social media, giving you rest from the anxiety and compulsiveness that it brings. Stepping back from this digital world also breaks us out of our postmodern way of thinking, forcing us to consider the thoughts and traditions of times past and evaluate whether they are still relevant or applicable today.

Third, reading books brings success to your life. As 1819 News CEO Bryan Dawson noted in one of his recent podcasts, it is those who read that always seem to be the successful, well-adjusted individuals who do great things in life.

Why might this be?

Perhaps it’s because reading helps us think the thoughts of the greats.

Perhaps it’s because reading breaks us out of the mold of our own little worlds.

Perhaps it’s because reading inoculates us against snippets, forcing us to consider the big picture.

Or perhaps it’s because reading enables us to make connections between one thing or the other.

These benefits are something that many Americans were losing even before the age of the internet, a fact noted by American author Neil Postman in his book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death.”

“Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other,” Postman wrote. “They do not exchange ideas; they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities and commercials.”

Elsewhere in the book Postman notes:

When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility. [Emphasis added.]

In essence, Postman’s words remind us that if nothing else, we should read if only to prevent our society from going down the drain.

Many people these days are eager to know what they can do to make a difference and lead our nation toward what is good and right. If that’s your desire, then why not start simple, pick up a classic book, and read it all the way through, pondering the things it teaches you and the ways it’s applicable to life today? And if you don’t know where to start, you can always try Jane Austen’s “Emma”….

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This article was originally published through The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News.

Image Credit: Flickr-Wonder Woman 0731, CC BY 2.0