Books: The Case For Escapism
By Randi Steers
What does it mean, in this ever connected age, to "escape" reality? Before smart phones, and the internet more broadly, you could turn the television off, silence the radio, put the newspaper down, and step into the quiet of your own mind, unbothered by the rest of the world.
Now, stepping away looks a little different than it used to. You can do everything mentioned above, and still have a little weight in your pocket vying for your attention every few minutes. Ping - an email notification. Beep - a text message. Ring - a phone call. Lather, rinse, repeat ad infinitum.
Every morning I wake to the irritating visual menagerie of red notification bubbles that is my cell phone. You can put your phone on 'sleep' or 'do not disturb' mode, but all that does is make what would otherwise be a constant trickle of annoyance, a deluge of things to read and sort through once the phone is set back to normal.
For what it's worth, I just leave my phone on silent as its default state; at least I don't have to hear all the notifications coming in. But aside from that little rebellion, there's not much that can be done to get away from it all. The news never stops. Entertainment is available at all times. People can reach you no matter where you go. Even books are digital nowadays. Is nothing screenless anymore?
Well, yes. Believe it or not, there's still some escapism to be had in this ever tied-down world. There's nothing like a physical book for curing screen dependency. I may have come very late into this whole smart phone ownership thing (didn't get a cellphone of any kind until I was already 32), but even I am beholden to its pings, beeps, and rings (blame it on my social anxiety).
That's why I so value reading. When I'm in the middle of a book, there's no screens, no notifications, no reminder that there's wars going on or economic crashes on the horizon. Those problems still exist, but I can take a break for a few hours and let other problems (the protagonist's, not my own) take centre stage for a while.
