When I was in elementary school, I usually woke up bursting with energy. I would jump right out of bed and immediately pick up a book or go outside. When I wake up now I usually lay around for half an hour before I lazily grope for my phone and stare at it for another half hour.
Do you read books for pleasure? It seems like a simple question at first, and my first instinct is to respond with yes, all the time. But when I think about it, books have become less and less interesting to me lately and I do not read as much as I used to.
Cooper Brown, a sophomore at Watauga, had similar feelings. “No, I don’t really read because I spend my time doing other things like video games, soccer, and snowboarding,” he said. ”There are more intriguing things on my phone.”
A 2019 study conducted by the National Literacy Trust found that percentages of children and young people who say that they enjoy reading have fallen to an all-time low of 53.3 percent. The study also found out that the percentage of children who read a book daily has plummeted to just 25.8 percent. Children just aren’t interested in reading anymore, and it looks like the popularity of reading is going to decrease more and more in the coming years.
While reading books becomes more antiquated, the percentages of kids who have phones and spend more time on electronic devices have skyrocketed in recent years. A report by Common Sense Media discovered that 53% of kids own a smartphone by the time they are 11. In 2015, that number was only 41%. The report also found that teens spend around 7 hours a day on their phones.
“People are on their phones more and people get phones more and are on them more than they used to...because I have a phone now, there is more stuff to do,” said Nathaneal Cox, also a sophomore at Watauga. Phones dominate the time of most teenagers today. Why would you pick up a book with an entire world of entertainment at your fingertips?
I don’t need to tell you that spending too much time on your phone has negative effects on your attention span. After all, your parents have probably told you that a million times. I can tell you that studies have shown that reading books has numerous benefits to people’s brain activity.
A study by Emory University found that connectivity within the language part of the brain had risen the morning after participants read a book. Curiously, this heightened activity in the brain endured for almost five days, leading researchers to consider the possibility of long term benefits for the brain derived from reading. Findings from the Literacy Trust research also say that young people who do read for pleasure are three times more likely to have a higher reading level for their age than kids who do not read. You don’t have to be a research scientist to understand that reading books has legitimate benefits.
“Reading helps me know more words and their context,” Cox says.
The barriers between technology and reality are eroding. Most people depend on technology in some way every day. Even in my short lifetime, massive changes have occurred. When I was in elementary school, a lot of people did not even have phones. Today 81% of Americans own a phone. While people may not be reading books as much, people are barraged with endless amounts of information every day, whether that be through social media like Instagram and Facebook, or the news.
“People think reading only applies to books but we as a generation actually read more words than anyone else. It’s just not always on paper form. So how a lot of people think technology is hurting our brains I actually think it’s improving our reading speed because of how constant we are,” said Juliet Eagles, a sophomore at Watauga.
Online resources such as Kindle or audiobooks may be unaccounted for in statistics concerning teenagers reading levels as well.
“I also think it is important to remember audiobooks.” Eagles said. “Audiobooks are a good replacement for books because you can perform tasks while enjoying a story.”
Studies by Pew Research have found that 1 in 5 Americans listen to Audiobooks, and that number is rising. However, only 7% of Americans say that they only read digital books and 28% say that they read in both digital and print format.
Contrary to the common assumption that since students are reading print books for pleasure less they are not learning as much, young people are digesting much more information than ever before. But reading books is still important. There is a big difference between scrolling through Instagram and subconsciously intaking bits and pieces of information and spending time immersing the mind in literature. The bottom line is that it’s unlikely reading print books is going to make a resurgence in popularity in the future, but technology is rapidly advancing, and the way we learn and enjoy stories is as well. Print books may lose popularity, but stories will always be told in some way.
Written by: Nathan Bishop
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