That’s why “influencer” was always so bizarre to me. They do influence, but kind of like everyone else that’s got a broader reach. Musicians, authors, politicians, and artists of all kinds influence. Even your own family and friends influence.
So technically I am an influencer. Just not to such a big degree.
And that also means everything that is ever recorded in any format will “manipulate” people. I mean hell, the Bible does that to an absurd degree. And if that’s good or bad is kind of just up for everyone to decide themselves.
I don’t mean that it influences your thinking (but it does, of course), I mean that it alters the shape of your consciousness (or “awareness” if you like). Like a drug.
It gently compresses your consciousness into your head (your intellect, or the part of your intellect that turns text into thoughts) and gently prys you away from everything else.
Maybe you notice the first couple times but eventually, if you read a lot, you forget that there was ever a difference and the changes become somewhat permanent. You enter the apartment inside your head to stay and thereafter peer out at the world through its little windows.
Reading is allowing someone’s thoughts directly into your brain. You’re letting me transmit my thoughts to you right now.
It was a pleasure having you inside of me.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” - G.R.R. Martin (stated by Jojen Reed in A Dance with Dragons).
Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card
Be careful, this Joyce shit is tripping
Can confirm, reading this post powerfully altered my consciousness. For good and bad.
