NCO Voices: Where Did the Books Go?

We know TikTok and Instagram are bad for productivity and retention, so why don't we do something about it?

For centuries, reading has been the primary means to gain knowledge. Books stretch your imagination, letting you think of endless possibilities, transferring you from your couch to anywhere in the world. They let you dissect and digest historical facts and places, acting as a time machine. They push your brain to the limits, almost like a two-hour gym session for your body. The knowledge and wisdom acquired in reading is unparalleled, whether it comes from taking college courses (like I am currently) or learning step-by-step doctrine. This all precedes my next question: If reading is that good for you, then where did the books go?

As long as I can remember, I was always encouraged to pick up a book and read. I naturally drifted towards youth books about sports, living vicariously through the protagonist. Moving into my adolescent years, I drifted to military history and military novels. Now, anything that piques my interests, I will delve into.

With that being said, approaching a decade in the Army, I’ve started to notice a diminishing number of “mini” libraries. Aside from the post library, libraries at the company, battalion, and brigade sections have been dwindling like sticks in a fire.

Photo courtesy of https://army.dodmwrlibraries.org/history.

Instead of having an array of literature at the CQ or staff duty desks, we are left to doom scroll Facebook or Instagram.

Studies show that this method of “passing time” is detrimental to not only our brains but affects our posture and lungs as well. Dr. Michael Rich, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and Associate Professor at the Harvard Medical school states that it is “not necessarily the amount of usage, but what we consume” through our mobile devices. Rich explains that blue light emitting devices such as smartphones or tablets affects the quality of sleep that we receive, along with a strong detriment to our memory.

In a separate study conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), subjects that use a smartphone for less than 4 hours a day had better head and neck posture than subjects that use a smartphone for more than 4 hours a day. The study also shows the respiratory function decreased as well in the individuals that had a greater phone usage due to slumping over.

Reading, however, has many positive effects on the brain. Another study from Harvard Medical School states that reading has a positive effect on multiple areas of the brain, to include the temporal lobe which is responsible for phonological awareness. In other words, the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds. Reading also affects the frontal lobe in the brain, specifically the Broca’s area which is responsible for speech production and language comprehension.

Finding a way to read daily also has many other benefits on the brain to include memory enhancement, improved concentration and focus, increased analytical skills, expansion in one’s vocabulary and mental stimulation.

Reading not only has positive effects on the brain, but the body as well. Reading daily influences your body to reduce stress. Diving into a book regularly also has shown correlation in better writing skills due to the ability to expand your vocabulary and memory recall.

As the research shows, all the benefits of reading correlate to what we would like to see in our Soldiers and many of the benefits can correlate to positive “attributes” in the Army.

That brings us back to the original question. Where did the books go? The “mini” library, in my opinion, should still be provided to Soldiers who are on duty. Instead of strong rangers or smart rangers, let’s turn them into complete rangers.