Quite a topsy-turvey musing and not at all bad. Really tries to get into the meat of the concept of an English major. However, I find the following rather funny in simply how wrong it is:<p>&gt;<i>And so with English departments: if we closed down every English department in the country, loud, good, expert, or at least hyper-enthusiastic readers would still emerge. One sees this happening already, in the steady pulse of reading groups and books clubs which form, in effect, a kind of archipelago of amateur English departments.</i><p>From what I&#x27;ve read (ha!), long-form reading is steadily on the decline and shows no sign of slowing down. Sure, there are a few prestige outlets experimenting with formats to engage audiences, and investigative journalism is still a worthwhile pursuit, but those are sidebar discussions to what&#x27;s being asserted above.<p>No, with technology, now audiences don&#x27;t have to bother with reading for instruction or entertainment. Simply look at the history of music, and now that entire libraries of material can be put in one&#x27;s pocket, the scarcity and effort factor of pursuit is nearly extinct. Books were portable. They were cheap to access.<p>Well, now that multimedia is not only portable but cheap  too - streaming audio services, free-to-watch or subscription video services, and user-content generated platforms like Instagram&#x2F;Twitter&#x2F;Facebook - I see the long-form reading and thinking avenue on the out.<p>It makes me sad. It&#x27;s a lot like the argument against learning to write cursive - sure, it&#x27;s hard, but it&#x27;s a challenge that spurs mental development. Long-form reading and critical thinking are inter-twined. Reading for pleasure, in modern times, is drooling over click-bait headlines, and it&#x27;s not going to turn around anytime soon.