This would've been very long for an answer, but my thoughts just didn't stop, so... Here's the original post by 
Click here for Taraz' post: Read Into It
I will focus more on the social part of reading in this post, focusing on it's effect in relationships.
I was one of those kids that read while walking. The real world wasn't much fun to me, even though in retrospective I lived a pretty good life, there was a lot of things weighing on young me. So, as soon as I learned to read, I learned to escape. Irony being active all my life, it was reading that helped escape a burn-out a year ago, and find my way back into real life.
I still try to read as much as I can these days. But screens do have me engaged a lot, for so many things. I try to keep my daughter out of the "pleasure" screen time, and have her see me on the screen only while working - or find a way to have us both interact with what is happening on the screen, but that's seldom and usually because she asks me to play a round of Splinterlands with her - she loves the drawings and movements. Since she is allowed very little screen time (one movie per week), I have her sit on my lap while playing a couple of games. She wouldn't just watch it. It's not only the game or the animations, it's also the connection with me she is looking for in those moments, and afterwards I usually leave the Laptop aside and go to do something with her.
I read her every evening while she falls asleep, up to 20min (the record was about an hour until my voice couldn't handle it anymore). I started it to fortify my connection with her (she lived with her mom most of the time), and strictly in German (we live in Ecuador, her mom only speaks Spanish) so she improved that as well. Now, she is finally living with me, the reading time has actually gone down a little. When I went to see her, it was usually for 7-10 consecutive days (it was a 16h bus ride, so I had to make it worth it), and I didn't have to work in that lapse, so I could focus on her. That lead to Good-Morning-Books, Nap-Books, and Good-Night-Books. Now, I do have to work, and single-parenting... Those who know, know. So it's reduced to books to fall asleep, and sometimes in the afternoon, and on weekends a little in the morning (if she catches me before I get up and make breakfast).
When we visited my family in Germany for the first time, everybody I cared about had to read to her. My mom, of course, but also my uncle, my brother, his girlfriend - and she always snuggled up to them. My father tried, too, but he had a stroke a few years back and it was very difficult for him to read out loud, and even though he got frustrated, she was just so sweet, cuddled in his arms, not saying a word about some of the sentences not making sense. Still to say - she does not ask everybody to read to her. It's a privilege.
Quote from Taraz:
Reading is a skill, and it isn't just the ability to comprehend the letters and understand the words, but there are a lot of other aspects to it also. For instance, the fluency of reading is going to impact on how the mind creates images, and that is going to directly impact on the enjoyment of reading.
It's not only the reading itself, it's also the listening part. Creating images in the head based on sound reflecting a coherent narrative. I noticed that after getting familiar with the voices and sounds in movies I could not-watch them and work while listening to them, and still have somewhat accurate images in my head (Disclaimer: I don't recommend doing that, it's better to focus on one thing than to overly multi-task). I listened as much to stories on cassettes when young as I was reading, and the effect was the same, and so does my daughter.
The more experience we have in life, the more images we can create, and the more accurate they are - my hypothesis, don't ask me to quote a study here. Reading is a transfer of experience, and the more varied the stories are, the more material we have to afterwards use to create worlds in our heads - worlds that lead to problem solving, inventions, design of values, utopias.
Even when the quality of the book is not the best - you still draw experience from it. Like from feedback "That doesn't taste good!" is kind of the contrary of productive feedback, but I can still draw conclusions: That person did not like this. For whatever reason, this not in a position to help me with constructive feedback. Maybe that person has not read enough and can't articulate well (okay, that's not a conclusion, but an interpretation, but it brings the thread back to reading).
I do the same with my girlfriend from time to time, reading philosophy books to her, or passages of other things that I'm currently reading. She is not much of a reader, and letting her into that world of mine creates intimacy. Reading, other than just discussing, creates a totally different environment. There's a neutral third, a text, something in the middle, something to focus on. We discuss the content, we can express our opinions, and learn a little about ourselves and the other in the process, but not in less confrontational way. And we can re-read if necessary, if our memory betrays us, we can go back instead of saying "Well, I remember that differently!"
When I read to her, we read together, the world around us stops, we're concentrated on the same thing, something that nobody else is focused on in this moment.
I have a friend who is over 60 years old and lives in Serbia. I got to know him here in Ecuador, and he's the only person that I stayed in touch with over a distance, for 5 years now (he escaped Ecuador right before the pandemic and lock downs started - the Sunday prior to the lock-downs, I took him to the airport). We always had very different opinions and political views, but are both trying to look at things from all sides, so we get along very well.
He's incredibly smart and he reads a lot. He read. His eyes are deteriorating, so he now listens to audio books. So, we started to read together. He got the audio book, I got the print, and we went from chapter to chapter. It's philosophy books, so there's always a lot to discuss - keep in mind that we usually have very different opinions on matters. We send each other voice messages, read our notes to each other, and discuss them. Whenever we have time - voice messages are great for that. I can answer whenever I have time, and he can send as many as he wants to without feeling like he's not letting me speak (which used to happen when we talked in person or on video calls).
To be honest, he's the person I most talk to, because in a way, he is always there, just a voice message away. One of the few positives that I give to Digitality.
The power of a story is in it's quality, and it's intention. Polynesian sailors navigated the pacific ocean based on stories that they were told around the campfire. The quality was excellent, the didactic method highly effective, and the intention was good. Honestly, I think that a big chunk of the deteriorating of values in our societies is due to the lack of reading. Today's narratives are nothing of that, we all know that and I will not get into that rant that is playing automatically in my head now. Will it ever be better? Hard to say. I myself am working on it, by guiding my daughter into a life full of stories.
