When was the last time you read a book for fun? Maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was last week, but most likely it was months ago. There is an obvious reason for this: school and social media are distracting teens from reading. High school students are busy with homework and sports and any free time they do get, they spend on social media or hanging out with friends. This reality has become widely accepted, while not necessarily encouraged. Despite this, why is reading on a decline and what are non-readers truly missing out on?
From the start there was an increase in various social media platforms replacing watching TV show’s or a movie’s. The quick dopamine hits have replaced forms of entertainment that take longer to have an effect. This is even more prevalent in teenagers, who have increasingly shortened attention spans. Scrolling for two minutes can easily turn into doomscrolling for hours. Teens spend on average 4.8 hours a day on social media according to the American Psychological Association. Reading has not suddenly become boring, it has simply been replaced.
This is clear in national data, as a 2021 Gallup poll shows that reading in America is on a decline, with an all-time low average amount of books read by Americans since 1990. Especially in the city of Atlanta, high school students, and adults in general, are constantly busy. School, sports, clubs, homework, or hanging out with friends take up a majority of their time. Reading a book throughout all of that often seems like just another source of stress.
However, research shows that reading can actually reduce stress and improve concentration. For those who struggle with falling asleep, reading a book before bed calms people down (and is definitely a better alternative to scrolling). According to a study done by the National Library of Medicine, 42% of people slept better when they read before bed. Not only that, reading increases empathy as people connect to the characters and increases critical thinking skills. Reading is not always an easy task, particularly when it comes to starting a book, but it is one that has tangible benefits.
Distractions are all around. Friends, Instagram, or sports, you name it. Finding time to read is not impossible, just improbable, especially when there seems to be so many “more entertaining” distractions all around. These are not bad ways to spend time, most of them are very life-giving and needed. Reading doesn’t have to be a three hours a day activity, it could simply be swapping out just a half hour of those four hours that wouldve been spent scrolling. As summer arises will students replace their devices with a book, now that they have more time on their hands?
