Why read plays, or anything for that matter?

The lack of readership that plays have been dealing with recently are, I believe, by and large a symptom of our overactive society. Information is consumed at such an exponentially intense pace that the slow, lumbering read of a play just isn't quick enough. Reading is going that way too. Words are being shortened, paragraphs are tighter and quicker to end. Punctuation is nearly a lost art. To add to this the requirement that people actually learn what is a kin to another language, the language of creating a world from words, seems impossible. Asking the questions "Why Read Plays?" is trivial at best. Given the current health of the written arts, I feel the overwhelming response would be, "Why Bother?" I imagine a day when pictures will be too time consuming to view and we will just directly recieve them, beamed to our brains. It appears this is the way things are going. Not necessarily an idea or future I am looking forward to, but the current path, non the less.