Despite books being more available than ever in virtually all forms — audio, e-book, handheld — it feels that reading comprehension, speed and overall enjoyment have gone way down within the past decade. It’s a shame that this is the case since books bring substantial value that often goes unrecognized in our daily lives.
I’m mainly referring to children and young adults, as we seem to be increasingly dependent on technology, drifting away from traditional forms of entertainment like reading.
In 2012, 27% of 13-year-olds reported that they read for fun, and in 2023, that number decreased to 14%. Average reading comprehension scores have also slipped among 13-year-olds, indicating that English classes aren’t making up for the lower reading enjoyment.
One can argue that COVID was the main driver of this change, and online learning doesn’t help the cause. However, given that 91% of 13-year-olds have smartphone access in America, many researchers would agree that this is what’s steering people away from reading.
There isn’t much data on the percentage of college students who read for pleasure. However, when you take a look around at the University, it’s hardly ever the case that someone is reading a book that isn’t for a class. Everyone either stares at their phones or listens to music through their wireless earbuds.
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Even when professors assign a book for a class, students can use websites like SparkNotes or ChatGPT to do the readings for them. Avoiding school reading has never been easier, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some university students have never finished a book.
This is a major problem, as it could be the reason for the decline in books read per year and overall reading skills. Our attention spans have become so destroyed by short-form content that it isn’t stimulating enough for us to sit down and read plain text.
It’s also possible that students haven’t given books a fair chance due to bad experiences with being forced to read books for class. When your teacher hands you a 300-page novel that you find dreadfully boring, of course, you’re going to avoid reading books going forward.
I think reading a book is a better use of time than watching short-form content. The hard part is convincing people that they would get more enjoyment out of putting some time aside to read a book as opposed to scrolling on their phones.
TikToks and Instagram reels can grab someone’s attention in just five seconds, while a book might need 50 pages or more. The difference is that once you do get into a flow state with reading, the satisfaction and value it brings to your life are unmatched from any other form of entertainment.
Over the years, people have underestimated the marginal improvement that reading makes to your life. Having a more sophisticated vocabulary, reading faster and being able to assess what you’re reading at a high level are skills that translate to every profession.
Whether you’re looking at engineers, architects or electricians, they all need to read technical documents, manuals and procedures to do their job effectively. ChatGPT won’t come in handy when companies expect you to understand the information and apply it on the job.
It’s incredibly disheartening to see that university students have some of the greatest masterpieces of all time like “Jane Eyre,” “The Great Gatsby” and “Moby-Dick” at their fingertips, yet they have no interest in giving them a chance. Students in the 1900s who never had access to today’s technology would die for the opportunity to have all these classics available to them.
The people who do decide to stick with reading a little bit every day will make quantum leaps in terms of reading comprehension and speed. This will result in a huge separation between them and their peers when it comes to overall knowledge of the world.
