We can’t extrapolate data from “Americans” to say “people in general” like this title does.
Americans and declining education is not a new phenomenon nor is it global. Americans are also not role models for anything.
True, on the other hand US is often a canary indicator. Often, not always.
In general, I have heard many variations of “people don’t read anymore” soooo many times, I wonder why it’s still news. Yeah, people read less books, more blog posts, more stuff on the internet and so on. It has significant effects on long term information connection, creation and maintenance of neural patterns and so on. Either we restructure the internet or that’s how it’s going to go…
Ah yes, the famous two countries in the world, the US and Denmark, our good old two-country world.
Reclassify doom scrolling as recreational.
I solve problems people.
I “read” a lot. Just audio books. I don’t usually get time to sit down and read, but I do a lot of driving and other mind numbing chores. For that, I “read”
That makes a lot of sense.
This might make some of you uncomfortable, but it seems like this coincides with women’s adoption of tech and social media.
Women already read at way higher rates than men, but since so many of them are swept up in the social media hysteria, they literally don’t have time or patience to do it any more.
I read because it’s nice to be in a differently reality for a bit. I generally do fantasy, because the world’s immersive and it’s fun to get lost in. My buddy said he’s reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, and I had it in the list, and it’s definitely not the escape that The Stormlight Archive was.
As with others here, I also do the audiobook thing. Reading is reserved for the time before bed, 15-30m or so, and audiobooks are for when you’re engaged in something that doesn’t require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.
when you’re engaged in something that doesn’t require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.
Jesus that sounds horrible. I mean, yeah, me too, but still…
Judging by your president, I think 40% fewer Americans read. For fun or otherwise.
Yeah, we can tell…
Unfortunately it’s not just a US problem. It’s more of a general issue. People ‘read’ a lot, but generally the wrong things. Like social media. And it’s causing people to lose their ‘reading muscles’ so to speak.
When I first got online in 1995, forum posts were much longer and more insightful. These days you see a lot of ‘tl;dr’ attitudes.
In my opinion, reading is a fundamental part of the human experience and important in people’s general development. Reading needs to be encouraged if possible, enforced if necessary. But there’s a lot of resistance to that.
You can blame things like YouTube for forum posts like that drying up. Why read when I can watch a video? (This does not reflect my opinion, merely the very simple thinking many people employ.)
You’re not wrong on that thought. But it’s even worse: with TikTok and YouTube Shorts, people aren’t even really seeing proper YouTube videos, just short snippets. God only knows what that’s doing to people’s attention spans, but I doubt it’s good.
I feel like I’m a dying breed: people who can enjoy long form content without needing a dopamine hit every five seconds.
And the algorithm is oushing creators to either do shorts or long content it seems. There are few videos in the 3-10 minute range any more. It’s either 90 seconds or 45 minutes. Most of the shit I want to watch lands in 30-60mins but I don’t have the time to dedicate to them often.
Personally, I’m a really long form guy :D Particularly on technical subjects and/or disasters. For example, ‘Well there’s your problem’ tends to run at least 2, usually closer to 3 hours. And ‘Brick Immortar’ recently put out a 3+ hour video on the SS Marine Electric disaster.
That’s the stuff that really makes me excited. So I definitely support loooong form creators where possible.
I dislike how everything is marching to video. I hate watching four paragraphs of information in a 26 minute video.
Just give me the information in a readable format, FFS.
I’m right there with you, it’s lowest common denominator content
can you write a tldr for this pls
Internet bad.
A decade ago I used to go through 3 books a week. Now I might read 3 a year. The world’s gone to such shit that fiction almost feels too quaint to be enjoyable. I know that’s not logical, but it’s how it feels…and it’s awful.
Weird, I’ve been reading a lot more this year. But I do go through phases:
Binge Watch TV/Movies
Binge Reading
Binge GamingI’m in the middle piece right now. Probably 6 or 7 books in the past couple of months? Started my first read of Roadside Picnic last night, should finish it tonight.
Maybe it’s just me but I lack the free time to get meaningful progress, if I’m lucky maybe 2-3 chapters a week by the time works and housekeeping is done. It often feels unrewarding to need to look back and remember the plot by the time I get back to the book
Yes my issue is by the time i have time to read its nearly time to go to bed, and i find having the light on and staying in a comfortable sleeping positoj delays my sleep too much unless its something really dense, in which case i don’t end up retaining any of it.
Get yourself a kobo and both of those issues disappear. Also, you get free books if you are willing to sail the high seas, which is nice.
I loathe sluggish pace reading where I lose the plot inbetween sessions.
I love binge reading a book but rarely can.
I already read a gazillion emails, documents, specs, and whatnot and the same braincells are often cooked.Similarly, I just can’t deal with physical jigsaw anymore. Same braincells used in work-related pattern recognition in troubleshooting, that I find it unsatisfying.
Try audio books. I used to not enjoy them but I’ve come around for similar reasons as you described.
There’s so much worse happening to society, so many more important things the media and “studies” could be pushing.
Why isn’t this article about the growth in the wage gap between lowest paid and highest at companies between those years.
Why isn’t it about the fact we’re in a new dark age of war where starvation (Gaza) and chemical weapons (Ukraine) are being used.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if people read more”
Yes, but shut the fuck up and turn your media clout to something more important. Fix the quality of life and justice issues.
The Neo-Liberal force of the media and academia are largely misapplied to both-siding Capitalism and the Capitalist Fascism it’s produced, and I’m sick of it.
We have hundreds of studies on the growth of the wage gap. Adding another one for the people perpetrating it to laugh about as they continue to make it worse won’t change things…
Also, I’d argue that the limitation of ideas and fostering creativity is trapping people in thought processes that don’t allow for thinking about solutions that get us out of those conditions.
Your post is why I read.
I used to burn through books, one Christmas my mum complained that she could’ve got a refund on a book I got if I hadn’t folded a page to keep track of where I was because I finished it by the time we were having dinner. Then school told me I was only allowed to read books from a certain reading level they’d given me for English class, and I had to complete an evaluation test to make sure I’d understood it before I could move up to the next level. I can barely get through 3 pages at a time now because that school program killing my love of reading.
School also really killed my love of reading
I always had a book, sometimes several books, that I was reading on my own, and I read well above my grade level. But my high school went on a really big reading kick while I was there. Basically every class had books assigned to read at one point or another, I think even some of the math classes did. One homeroom period a week was dedicated to SSR (sustained silent reading) where you had to be reading something, you weren’t allowed to do homework, be on the computer, etc.
So they did a really great job of turning reading from something I genuinely really enjoyed to something that was a dreaded chore.
I still read occasionally, but nothing like I used to. Some of that’s being an adult with a busy schedule
But I definitely see plenty of space in my schedule where I could read and just don’t. It’s harder to get myself into the headspace where I want to read anymore.
I almost got myself back on track a few years ago, unfortunately it was just as COVID hit and I had just started reading The Road, which I was really enjoying, but with all of the shortages from supply lines being disrupted it was hitting a little too close to home.
I’m almost back on track now, but I doubt I’ll ever get back to where I was before high school murdered my love of reading.
I’m realizing in my adulthood just how much school has hurt my impression of reading.
Throughout most of my life, I was so used to reading something and then having someone else explain it to me, that I never had the confidence to go off and read things on my own.
School sucks. We need a radical redesign
If you’re a SciFi fan, read the expanse series. It’ll reinvigorate your love of reading again. At least, it did for me.
Unless you’re like my friend who read it with me, in which case you’ll finish it. Love it. And then mope about because you can’t find any books quite like it and is even less likely to pick up a book now because it’s not The Expanse.
They jist released the first book in a new series. Mercy of Gods.
There are a lot of other good options. While they are not as engaging as the Expanse (in my opinion, YMMV) tell them to check out and the Bobiverse books (starts with We Are Legion) and Murderbot Diaries (starts with All Systems Red). I found both of those very entertaining.
This is the second time I’ve seen Bobiverse mentioned. I might actually have to give it a go.
You can try the Old Man’s War series, The Three-Body Problem series, Children of Time. Lots of great sci-fi out there.
I count myself among the lapsed readers. I grew up as a voracious reader. I was ALWAYS the best reader in school, and always had a book with me. I even preferred to eat alone, so I could read.
Today, I can’t remember the last book that I read with my eyes. I listen to audio books on road trips, but I also mix that up with podcasts and comedy videos.
In some ways, people are reading more than ever, they’re just reading stuff on their phones, just not books.
For anyone in the US that doesn’t know:
-You can sign up for your local public library online.
-Then download Libby or Hoopla.
-You can then check out books, including audio, and comics (I read all of Invincible and The Boys recently).
-They also have Movies, TV, and Music sections but I’m unfamiliar with them.
It’s great and free. More people should use it. Also, physically go to you library if you can. It’s a great resource and they have little clubs and get togethers if you are trying to meet people.
I think a big part is the switch to audiobooks, I know a lot of my friends have moved almost exclusively to those. It’s a lot easier to listen to a book while cleaning, driving, working out, cooking, etc.
I still read physical books, but I have to set aside time for it, time I could spend doing something else if I was free to just listen to it.
I don’t know how people stay “locked in” to audiobooks. My mind wanders when the text isn’t commanding my attention, and I lose the plot — ESPECIALLY if I’m doing something while I listen.
