How often is a book picked up in someone’s free time? Throughout the years, the amount of people who are interested in reading has varied. Now, readership is healing from a lack of readers in 2020.
“There was a drop in readers for sure, but with the rise of BookTok, a side of Tik Tok which mainly focuses on promoting books, and older Gen Zers, people are buying more books,” says Liberian Kristen Rademacher.
For the longest time, people were dropping books for various reasons; one of these being intimidation.
“Some people think continually reading a book is too difficult or boring,” says freshman Eva Malfas.
School requirements can make reading feel more like work than enjoyment. A classical book written by Edgar Allen Poe usually isn’t the most interesting to students, causing them to lose interest.
“I haven’t found a book that has really caught my attention for me to read it consistently,” says freshman Kasey Pena. “All the books I’ve read in school were pretty boring, so I never was interested in picking up another.”
Despite how BookTok has brought more attention to books, social media has had some negative effects on readership.
“Social media does a number on people’s attention spans, making it harder for some people to focus on just reading straight text for a prolonged period of time,” says Malfas.
Today, most people, especially teenagers, pick up books less, and their phones more.
“Lots of people have an average screen time of around six hours a day, so they rather go on their phones than pick up a book,” says Pena.
Daily activities are unpredictable, so sometimes there isn’t enough time for a person to be able to read with the adventures of life going on.
“With school and work, there isn’t enough time for all the fun things that you could be reading,” says Rademacher.
Despite being just pieces of paper to some people, books are packed with lots of benefits to their readers. One of their benefits is increasing their vocabulary.
“It helps you with your language, to use different and bigger words,” says Malfas.
“Books are going to make you smarter, and that will serve you in your future careers and relationships as well,” says Rademacher.
Another plus of books is how they open up a person’s perspective to different worlds.
“You can step outside of your regular day to day life, learn what it’s like for different genders, social brackets, races and more all through the characters’ eyes,” says Rademacher.
Reading doesn’t have to be all for knowledge, it can be interesting too. If someone picks up the right book, it can suck them right into the story.
“I get interested in certain stories and characters,” says Malfas.
“We’ve had our collection of books grow over the years,” says Rademacher. “I have gotten rid of the old materials and replaced them with better, newer books.”
If books really aren’t someone’s thing, they have other options as well. If a person still wanted to dive into a world unlike their own, they can pick up their tv remote.
“I think movies and tv shows can be a good substitute for reading books. They have the same vibe and can bring the same benefits, just with pictures and voices too,” says Malfas.
