Curiositas: The Audio book Fad

Roughly one hundred years ago, if you wanted to hear a piece of music, the best thing was to go to a live performance and give your full attention to it for a solid hour. Today, we can play music in the background. What happened with music is now somewhat analogous to what's happening with books. 

Listening to audiobooks has become a big deal these days. It's great in many ways because it takes a lot less focus and time. You can do it while driving; you can do it while washing the dishes or hiking a trail, you can do it while doing a million other things. Of course, when you read a book, you have to read a book. 

That's where the problem comes for me. The ability to listen to audiobooks while doing a million other things fits too nicely into our overall consumer mentality. We like to consume things just to consume them, and we prefer the consumption process not to take a lot of time, energy, or really even much of our attention because we just don't have a lot of those things to spare. However, what makes reading a book great is that it forces us out of this high-speed, multi-tasking mentality. Audiobooks don't. 

Curiositas was a term used at my college by my literature professors to describe literary characters who were overly curious. This kind of curiosity is the opposite of the true desire for knowledge. It's roughly the difference between seeking information and seeking the Truth, but it's also more subtle. It has to do with a mindset. Perhaps with this type of vain curiosity in mind, Jesus rebukes those looking for a sign "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of Jonah. And he left them, and departed" (Matt 16:4). Jesus knows that those asking him for a sign actually hate the truth. They just want information. They seek bread for their stomach or a spectacle. 

It's my belief that curiositas can disguise itself behind otherwise noble pursuits such as listening to a book, a podcast, or watching a Youtube video on something profound. We might be tricking ourselves into believing we want knowledge or the truth but really be pursuing information out of a kind of vain curiosity. I'd like to avoid getting addicted to information for information's sake, but I'm going to have a hard time getting rid of my audiobooks, and I'm certainly not saying they are all bad. 

In the article Why Listening to a Book is Not the Same as Reading It, the author says audiobooks are performances by skilled narrators and, thus, have a merit of their own totally apart from the book itself. He seems to conclude that books probably require more engagement, and, therefore, we're more apt to remember them and get something out of them. However, audiobooks allow us to engage with topics and ideas that we might just not have time for otherwise. So, I'm happy audiobooks let me access literature during my busy week, but I also wonder if I'm really watering down the experience in the same way that playing Bach in the background might be giving you only a percentage of the full experience.