It is likely that the dilemma of our time is no longer whether to speak or to remain silent, because that has been replaced by another dilemma: whether to read or to write.

Once, people almost naturally placed reading before writing. This was partly because writing often came at a high cost: it consumed a great deal of time. Moreover, the possibility of having readers was extremely limited. You had to please an editor before seeing your writing published in a newspaper. To see it published in a book was a dream.

Nowadays, the very first thought that comes to mind (whether it is a spark of talent or the babbling of an intellectual fool) can be written on Facebook, on a personal blog, or anywhere else, and with a single click, sent off to “readers.”

Technology has made it possible, in many cases, for writing to be easier and more common than reading.

But what do we gain, and what do we lose, from this reversal?

Reading has always been, and remains, an inward and slow act. By its very nature, it requires respect for another person’s thought. It is an exercise in humility: accepting that someone else has something to say, and that you must follow them with curiosity and patience.

By contrast, today’s writing on social media, blogs, and similar platforms is often an act of display, a public performance. It is tied to presence, to the desire to leave traces, to the pleasure of immediate reactions.

In the race between reading and writing, it seems that more and more people are choosing writing. Everyone wants to write; few want to read. Text is ceasing to be a dialogue and is becoming a multitude of monologues seeking clicks and likes. Reading, abandoned by the masses of users, is turning into a hidden practice, a small cult of those who still believe that meaning is born of concentration.

The dilemma “to read or to write?” is also a dilemma between depth and visibility. Reading immerses you in depth; writing exposes you on the surface. Reading makes you think; writing makes you visible.

Perhaps, as in the Middle Ages, reading will survive as the privilege of a chosen minority, while writing remains the daily ritual of the majority.