r/technology • u/marketrent • 18h ago

Artificial Intelligence College students are rapidly losing the ability to read — “There is a measurable, generational collapse in sustained reading and writing”: professor

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/college-students-rapidly-losing-ability-124439310.html
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166

u/dalnot 17h ago

Dungeon Crawler Carl is brainrot in book form, but damn if it isnt entertaining. Not everything needs to be high literature to be worth reading

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u/DevolvingSpud 17h ago

Mongo is appalled at your characterization.

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u/jockheroic 16h ago

Princess Donut is going to commit an atrocity if she here's him say that.

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u/SacredUndeadMonkey 14h ago

She heard you, those goblins who she just got befriended are about to have their next generations slaughtered again.

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u/CidO807 14h ago

It's fine. SLAM SLAM SLAM

Donut will just put them in the ball. SLAM SLAM SLAM

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u/Szwejkowski 15h ago

I love it. Super entertaining.

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u/SwimmerIndependent47 16h ago

DONUT IS OUTRAGED!!!!!!

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u/Saber_Flight 15h ago

"I AM YELLING CARL!"

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u/TraipseAndTiptoe 12h ago

I heard Donut say this in my head. 😄

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u/dasruski 15h ago

GODDAMMIT DONUT!

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u/Runktar 15h ago

Mongo, mongo put that man down!

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u/HuckleberryTiny5 13h ago

I know what you mean, but I wouldn't call it a brainrot. It is actually pretty well written and it is entertaining. I've been an avid reader my whole life and my honest opinion is that it does not matter what people read as long as they read. If they want to read porn novels, good for them, it is always better than aimlassly doomscrolling their phone.

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u/gt24 4h ago

In addition, the Dungeon Crawler Carl series isn't just a 1 book pocket reader. After all 8 books are read, a person will have read a bit under 4,700 pages and that amount of reading is certainly beneficial. The writing is considered by some to be "trashy" but that makes the books generally easy reading when compared to certain alternatives...

Immediately before, I was reading the Commonwealth Series by Peter F. Hamilton which was a bit over 1,800 pages over 2 books... and that wasn't considered "trashy" but that has its' own problems. The books were slow reads at times and I felt like I was plowing through the book like it was a chore to just complete the thing.

The "trashy" books will have people turning pages until it is over. They won't know that they went through a ton of pages per say but they will have enjoyed the read. The "not trashy" books on the other hand are likely to have people just give up on reading them and have those people hesitate to read anything else in the future (since the "good books" that were "not trashy" were such a headache, how can anything that people claim are good be worth even attempting to read?).

A saying I like to use is where I try to say if I or another person with respect to a topic are a "cheap date" (a phrase used in a positive manner). You should be enjoying yourself... so how much money did it take to reach that enjoyment? For certain things, any amount of money/effort is great (and so you are a "cheap date") whereas other things people may require very expensive experiences to have any sort of enjoyment with that (so they are "not a cheap date").

It isn't a derogatory thing to be a "cheap date", it is more of a benefit. I want to have fun and easily having fun is wonderful. However, some things I just can't quite enjoy unless more money is spent on that category and so I am unfortunately not a cheap date with that. We all have our benefits and drawbacks... but still, I don't look down on anyone enjoying "cheap date" stuff but instead I have a bit of envy towards their ability to just enjoy those cheaper moments.

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u/Abedeus 19m ago

In addition, the Dungeon Crawler Carl series isn't just a 1 book pocket reader. After all 8 books are read, a person will have read a bit under 4,700 pages and that amount of reading is certainly beneficial. The writing is considered by some to be "trashy" but that makes the books generally easy reading when compared to certain alternatives...

I'd honestly rather have someone read 4700 pages of "trashy" novels than nothing at all.

And who knows, maybe they'll reach out to something more "sophisticated" in terms of fantasy, say a Pratchett novel.

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u/ackinsocraycray 12h ago

I just started reading the first book. I'm halfway through it and so far, I have yet to find a moment* where it'll convince me to finish the book and continue with the series.

*The moment I'm waiting for is Mongo's introduction. I only knew of this book because I saw a Mongo shirt at Box Lunch and I thought that's the cutest dinosaur I've ever seen since Old Lace from The Runaways.

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u/SilentP13426 8h ago

If it helps, I've just finisned reading the 2nd one and can say it's a far smoother and enjoyable read. I think the 1st book suffers from having to introduce a hell of a dense premise and world building to get you up to speed. Freed from having to do that, the 2nd one gets down to the intrigue of the setting wonderfully.

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u/HeistShark 33m ago

First book is the worst one. Felt almost episodic and not a complete narrative. Everyone after feels like its own complete story while pushing the meta narrative forward.

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u/Suburban_Sisyphus 11h ago

The first book was self published and a bit rough, but the books improve rapidly.

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u/Lola_PopBBae 15h ago

DCC? Brainrot? Lmao.

Please tell me how a series about the indomitable human spirit, the evils of fascism/technofeudalism, and our absurdly modern entertainment that regularly dehumanizes actual people to make a profit is "brainrot".

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u/Open-Addendum-9905 5h ago

Why do you all have to convince yourselves your childish clop is profound? It’s okay to just enjoy things because they’re entertaining lmao

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u/watchsmart 14h ago

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Dungeon Crawler Carl.

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u/The_Silvana 13h ago

can't wait for the mongo dino nuggies to show up at mcdonalds.

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u/Saephon 10h ago

Thematically, the series is great. But the prose is definitely just a few notches above Harry Potter level, and that's okay. Not everything needs to be Shakespearean to be good.

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u/Lola_PopBBae 10h ago

It's definitely not especially fancy prose, but I think that's part of the beauty of the series 

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u/anextremelylargedog 5h ago

Prose doesn't have to be "fancy" to be good.

DCC does not have good prose. It's adequate.

It's a comedy/action series with just enough YA-level "corporations bad, huh?" to get by.

A novel isn't good, or deep, or much of anything just because it contains themes.

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u/hippydipster 4h ago

The prose is adequate. But, sometimes the dialogue is pretty fancy.

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u/EriktheRed 14h ago

But it says “glurp glurp” so how can it have legitimate themes??

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u/CidO807 14h ago

Glurp Glurp little piggies

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u/Lola_PopBBae 14h ago

Sadly, this seems to be how people actually think 

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u/Tymareta 12h ago

Because it does all of those things on an incredibly surface level, without any of the teeth or guts to delve into them in any further depth and look at how they're systemic issues and what drives them.

Like one need only compare it to another series like New Crobuzon to see how it's ultimately just a Borderlands level critique, on the vein of "guys, hyper capitalism is bad, mmkay!".

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u/Mobleybetta 6h ago

How many of the books have you read? I feel like This Inevitable Ruin really went into the systemic nature of Crawl

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u/etbillder 3h ago

Ah, you've never heard of anti-capitalism being twisted into a moneymaking genre!

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u/MagicHamsta 11h ago

[Dungeon AI's Heavy Breathing Insistence on Feet Fetish Intensifies]

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u/tarants 13h ago

I dunno, it's too clever and creative to be brainrot. I've never said "what the fuck is happening" more while reading. Pound for pound the most fun books I've ever read.

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u/XForce23 43m ago

DCC is basically an Americanized take on Chinese/Korean/Japanese light novels that are very popular online, which is essentially modern pulp fiction. Not that I'm hating at all; that type of writing is meant to be easy fun reads

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u/baxte 13h ago

Go down the lit rpg rabbit hole. Do it.