Do today's teens read less or more?

[RobertManchester]

I'd say more 2thing spring to mind 1st would be format all the Ebola readers and stuff like that make reading more cool and more available. 2nd is that as far as I can see they have more to pick from than ever before that they can feel has been made for them

[thenameisZelda]

Sadly, I think this is true. Most teens I know only read when school requires them to read. Even then they don't really read. I have a 12 year old sister who is more wrapped up in fanfics than she is in actual literature of substance. She doesn't read anything with any real meaning behind it. Just the mindless dribble of other teens and their fantasies involving One Direction and other boy bands. It's upsetting. But it is a whole new generation.

[andrewandrea]

I think is no matter how much they read but what ...

[Lehayes5]

Most seem to read less. There are too many things like game systems and smart phones for teens to be preoccupied with nowadays. I'm thankful I have two teenage cousins that enjoy getting together to just read or share books.

[Chrysa Pap]

I'm 16 & a crazy book lover. But i don't really know if kids read more or less than they used to.

[ipekbunsal]

Well I am a 16 year old teen but this changes person to person. I have lots of friends who love to read and same amount as who hate to read. How can they hate reading? I have no idea.

[hasreadit]

As a teen, I know a lot of other teens who like to read. At the same time, the books they choose to read are pretty crappy and have no substance to them. I think the same percentage of teens read now, just like always, and the teens who don't find other venues of entertainment

[midgetgem]

I know quite a lot of people who love reading, but in my opinion I think teens read less nowadays. I used to read constantly and wouldn't ever be seen without a book, but since I discovered the Internet and I had a phone etc. I didn't read as much. There are other things that teens nowadays would prefer to do than sit and read, like watch YouTube videos or go on Tumblr/Twitter, which I suppose is reading but not the way that its meant to be!

[Noeld]

At my middle school we had a thing where you got different prizes for reading fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five books. You had the whole school year to do it. One of my friends, a sixth grade girl, read thirty four books that were all over three hundred pages through the year. I was really busy with stuff that year so I only read, like, nine. You get extra points for reading really long books. One thousand page book I read counted for three. Every week they would post the book count next to the school library and my friends and I would all go look at them. There were kids from all grades who read less than five. It was pretty much from one extreme to the other. I think it depends on a lot of things. Some teens just don't have time to read and some teens would rather do other stuff. I think that a lot of the cause with teens reading books are because they don't read as well and get bored and frustrated (I know this because I'm a teen and I have friends like that). Also, a lot of teens read books just because the books are popular and they want to know what all of their friends are talking about. Overall, I think that there are a lot of reasons why teens do and don't read as much. All I know is that reading is not something that is going anywhere for a long, long time.

[ylisa7]

People/teens are all going to be different. When I was a teen I had very few friends who liked reading as much as I did. Today my teen nieces all love to read. Now that I am an adult I know very few people my age who read. Maybe it's my age range, lol.

[Jennbookie]

I believe many are reading from a tablet, but I also think they are more interested in games, TV and movies. The movies made into books may inspire some to read books they would not have read on their own, but I don't think it is enough to say they are reading more these days. My nieces and nephews rarely read books.

[Janiac02]

My nephew is a preteen and he reads quite frequently (in between video games and TV, anyway), but I am not sure if that is indicative of the societal norm. With the surging popularity of YA book series being adapted into movies, I would think that some of those more popular stories are inspiring teens to pick up books. Hard to say, though. Certainly I would think many are exposed to a narrow variety of literature, required reading notwithstanding.

[TLGabelman]

I didn't like reading at all when i was younger. I tried reading but didnt like the "typical" books girls my age liked and i was a very slow reader. Now at 38 ive learned that reading a variety of genres is what works for me and most arent what women my age like now either. I dont care what people expect me to like because i usually dont like the most popular stuff unless i read them before they become popular...im an against the grain gal i guess.

[anitadsilva]

Hi everyone!

I think teens today do not want to waste their time reading books. rather they will like to watch a movie made out of a top selling book.

I feel teens today don't have the patience to go through book reading.

This lack of reading habit can be blamed on parents too, as they rarely get time out to read stories to them when these teens were kids. All kids like it when someone reads stories for them. So if we want our teens to read books and develop reading as hobby.....parents will need to be serious about it.

[fifthmayfly]

Definitely a lot less, sometimes I think I'm the only exception.