Why People Read Less And Less

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sammi8764
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Re: Why People Read Less And Less

Post by sammi8764 »

I think it is quite a shame to go through life without hardly reading at all. I am often judged for my love of reading. No one is mean about it, but they will often say "You're reading again?" or "Haven't you already read that book?" or even "You actually like English class?" I love reading poems and novels from many different time periods, and many people just don't care anymore. It saddens me how so many people could care less about books, and instead want to know about the next movie or tv series. And honestly, even people who read all these modern books are still missing out. It's the classics that are truly good; there aren't very many books written like them anymore, with a good moral lesson and whatnot. Now it seems all the books are either supernatural, romantic, or both, and while I do like many books like those, it's hard to find good pieces of literature, like Gone With the Wind, Les Miserablés, or even Moby Dick and Black Beauty and Huckleberry Finn. You know, books you're forced to read in school. Those are the great, intellectual novels; those are pieces of literature. So even those who do read, but only read modern literature, are still not reading as they should. Of course, this is all my opinion, of course, and I'm not saying there aren't any great books now. The Book Thief, or The Night Circus, for example. People just need to appreciate older novels as well.
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skltnkiese
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Post by skltnkiese »

I think the first three reasons posted sums up the whole of why i feel people don't read nowadays. Television, fast-paced lifestyles and misplaced values. It is all dumbing-down mass population. In my city I feel like an outcast or weirdo somewhat because so few people around me are reading. Maybe I'm just getting older and slowing down.
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readerromance2003
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Post by readerromance2003 »

I can think of a few things:
1. To busy with texting and using smartphones,
2. To busy on the computer
3. Don't want to feel that their friends think they are weird
4. Children today think reading is not important and dumb
5. Adults are to busy with work and kids that they feel they do not have time
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Post by Alexsandra »

I think the trick is to reach out to the very young and just starting out learning to read or have been reading for 2- 3 yrs. This is the time when you can teach them how to pick Books by what they are interested in. It is easier to keep their focuse when it is about something they like.I also think this should be what they do with kids all the way through school.I had a 10th grade teacher who talked to his students and got to know them and would give books out to read by what he thought they would like,then tell you if you read it let me know what you think about it and if you don't like it I will give you something different to read.I loved that man for what he did for me and other's in the class,he instilled the love of books in us and I wish there was more of that today in our home's and school's.
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Post by readinginreview4 »

I think it's because people are becoming so consumed with electronics now-a-days. Kids are watching more television and people are busy and never "stop to smell the roses". It's quite sad.
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stoppoppingtheP
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Post by stoppoppingtheP »

People read stuff, but a lot of stuff that is not substantial.

People read hundreds of tweets, headlines, messages shared on social media, but all this stuff just fills their brain with mostly unimportant information.

“there have been so many times
i have seen a man wanting to weep
but
instead
beat his heart until it was unconscious.

-masculine”


― Nayyirah Waheed
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Mbenner
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Post by Mbenner »

I grew up with video games and the computer I hated reading books that was until a teacher in High school made me read ragtime lol. For summer school . Now I can't imagine life with out books. But my point being is My generation the 80s gen grew up with Sunday morning cartoons and Mario bros video games and other distractions then books. Now we have iPads and iPods to keep kids from reading we need more people to introduce kids to reading and we need to turn off the tv!
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Ravenmount
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Post by Ravenmount »

I think Internet is a big part of the decrease in book reading, too. People read all the time, but they are reading short posts on social media and short articles on web-version news sites, and lots of other spoon-fed content online that is never presented with the text-density of a typical book. After doing Internet all day, books may feel particularly long and hard to digest.
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torchwilde
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Post by torchwilde »

Sadly, the other day I was sitting in the lunch room reading on my kindle and my co-worker who was also on a kindle fire asked me what I was doing? I laughed and said I am reading. He looked at me in all seriousness and said "why would ever do that". I asked him what he was doing. He said playing angry birds. I then asked him, okay well I assume you have a few books on there too. He said to me, "only a couple of reference books". I asked him why he bought the kindle fire, he then told me, "so I can watch movies and play video games". I shook my head and walked away. As an avid reader I read 2-3 books a week. So I could not fathom why he was not reading more. But I polled a lot of people around me and the average was 2 -3 books per year or less.

-- 24 Jun 2014, 13:24 --
Ravenmount wrote:I think Internet is a big part of the decrease in book reading, too. People read all the time, but they are reading short posts on social media and short articles on web-version news sites, and lots of other spoon-fed content online that is never presented with the text-density of a typical book. After doing Internet all day, books may feel particularly long and hard to digest.
I completely agree, I constantly see people "trolling" Facebook, not actually reading anything. Its a sad commentary.
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Post by Lilianar_ »

When I started my first semester of college, I found it very hard to find time to read. Between taking a full load of classes and having a full time job I just couldn't make any room to indulge in reading. I believe that in that time period I only read about 4 or 5 books the whole semester, shameful isn't ? I've learned how to better balance it all and am looking forward to testing it all out this fall in my 3rd college semester.
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Post by Reetikal »

I think it's also because life for everyone is so busy and there is just so much to do all the time that we never get a chance to read or just too tired!
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ipekbunsal
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Post by ipekbunsal »

I only have time to read in summer. :( I'll try to make time to read in winter too but that'll be hard because we've a terrible education system. I am at school 9 am to 4 pm! If we add this eating, coming home and exercising it gets to 7 pm if we are optimistic. 7 pm to sleep I try to study and if I do that I am probably tired or too stressful to see the next day. lol. Oh, and this year I will be busier. I will go to a course after school 2 days in the week days and 2 days in the weekend. I just... can't think. Dear...
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Post by Artiste8 »

I think that reading on the internet is not the same as reading a book, and to me does not count. I think it is sad if people don't read and they don't know what they are missing.

I think that there are three kinds of people:

1. People who don't read at all. Magazines, websites and text books don't count. 2. Some people read a little before bedtime to help them sleep or if there really is nothing else to do. 3. And then there are people who actually read because they want to read and they make the time to read. These people read often, like every day and usually carry a book with them everywhere.

I am the #3 type and I am so happy I have my books.
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Singai Mumma81
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Post by Singai Mumma81 »

In my opinion, people read less because of their hectic life or plain lazy.
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Post by Lin2412 »

It's sad to think of it that way. I mean, we know books gave also evolved to cope up with the technological change-- that's why we have ebooks now. It makes reading more accessible and can do it about pretty much anywhere. But there have also been a lot of distractions. People prefer easy entertainment. Reading is only "time consuming" if people think it is.
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