5 Signs Reading Could Be Harming You

I have thoroughly read an interesting article about how reading could harm a person's life. It took a moment for me to realize that parts of it defines me as a reader.

I was stunned.

It struck me so bad that it gave me an epiphany :(

I have to repost this.. Anyway, enjoy reading :(

5 Signs Reading could be Harming You

by Bob Lowry

1. Learning not Doing. Do you know someone who is book-smart but has no common sense? Do you know someone who has three advanced degrees, and never had a job? It is too easy to learn just for the sake of knowing, but be unable to do anything with all that stuff in your brain. Learning something for the pure joy of learning is tremendous. But, if all you ever do is learn and never put that knowledge into action, maybe you’re reading too much and acting too little.

2. Information Overload. 90 trillion e-mails were sent last year. There are 250 million web sites to check out. 500,000 books were published in 2009. As a society are we any smarter? As an individual do you ever feel overwhelmed? Like a kid in a candy store, we have unlimited options butting up against limited time. An efficient filtering system is all that stands between complete information overload and us. How do you choose?

3. Afraid to Act. With so much information from so many sources, are you ever afraid to move forward on something? Are you waiting for that one web site, that one book, or that one Tweet that contains the magic bullet of success? Are you fearful of your own intuition without written confirmation? There are more “experts” than problems. If you keep searching for the last thing that you need, you’ll be unable to act at all.

4. Expert Confusion. As noted above we are not short of experts. But, just because someone claims to have the answer you need doesn’t make it so. Following something you read from any source without using your own intelligence and gut can put you in a world of hurt. Reliance on others for all your important decisions can be a downside of too much reading.

5. Life Takes Place Out There. I really love to read. Books, web sites, blogs, newspapers, magazines, anything with printed or displayed words will grab me. But, life doesn’t take place on the Internet. Descriptions of someone else’s life or ideas are in books or on the Web. Your life is not. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that reading about life is the same as living it.

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