I know there's been a lot of discussion on this subreddit about the downfall of reading. Kids aren't reading anymore. Everyone's attention span is shot. Booktok is ruining the book industry, etc. Media literacy is dead. But is it really that bad? Has the times really changed that much?
- Kids aren't being assigned books anymore, just sections of books. And that's a shame, right? But I grew up in the 90's. We often didn't read the full assigned reading. There was immense pressure to have a high GPA, be in all honors/AP classes and be in like a million clubs and activities to impress college admission boards. We could Cliffnote our way through Crime and Punishment but not calculus and physics so that's where our time went. Some of us had to work jobs. Some of us had to watch our siblings because our parents worked a lot. Some of us just didn't want to. We did read some of it, but it was highly supplemented by Cliffnotes.
Were there kids who read every single word of every single assigned books? Absolutely. They genuinely enjoyed reading and prioritized it. But was that all of us, or even most of us? No.
I'm old enough that the many of the English department heads are probably about my age. I can totally see them going, "Let's be honest, we didn't read the whole book when we were their age, they're not going to read it. Let's just assign them to read the crucial parts so they can understand the themes and the cultural impact."
-
Kids, and people, are reading just as much as ever, just not books. I am not (again, not) saying that reading chats, texts, comments, emails, subtitles, etc is anywhere near the same as reading a book. Of course it's not, they are two completely different form of reading. But our lives have gotten significantly more text based in a past few decades. For a lot of us, we probably read more than we speak or listen. Maybe the reason we read less is because we just need a break from written words. You know how when you're at a party, it's just nice to go to the bathroom and enjoy a break from all the noise? Maybe we're not getting stupider or less intellectually curious, we just need a break from text.
-
I don't think booktok is ruining the publishing industry, but I do think that the publishing industry figured out they can sell mass market quality books at paperback prices. Low effort books were always around, they were just mostly sold as mass market paperbacks. And while those still exist, I feel like there's far less of it because, thanks to booktok, publishers can sell them at paperback prices. Sure, the "As Seen on Booktok" section is taking up space but it's probably taking up the same amount of space the Harlequin romance books would've taken up twenty years ago.
-
Regarding media literacy, thirty years ago, if I had a stupid hot take on a book, the only person hearing about it are my friends, maybe my teacher if it's for school. Now if I have a stupid hot take online, several somebodies all over the world are shaking their head in disbelief. Has the ideas gotten stupider or has it just gotten much easier to get our stupid ideas out there. There used to be gatekeepers (newspaper and magazine editors) but now anyone can voice their opinions on a public platform.
And speaking of stupid hot takes… Maybe I'm being naive and optimistic. Reading has changed significantly, for sure. I'm just not convinced that we, as a society, have gotten stupider. I do think that reading will become more of a niche hobby, but just because people are reading less books, does that mean that people are learning less? Being exposed to any less ideas? Being immersed in less worlds?
by Anxious-Fun8829