With so many ways to be entertained and absorb media today, why choose reading?
At the start of 2022, I was walking around my local area when I came across this box - "New Year, New Book", "Free". On my walk I picked up Rachel Kushner's collection of essays, The Hard Crowd which I cannot wait to get stuck into.
I grew up reading, I would spend my nights as a child staying up late under the covers devouring book after book and I did this late into my teens. As I got older, something changed and reading wasn't "cool" anymore.
I think my decline in the number of books I read each year coincidentally coincided with the rise in popularity of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Instead of spending my evenings curled up with a book, I was lounging on the couch binging Pretty Little Liars or The Walking Dead and I wish it hadn't happened this way. If this sounds familiar to you, fear not dear readers you are not alone!
A study by the National Literacy Trust published in 2019 revealed that only 26% of under 18 year olds spent any time each reading which is the lowest daily level recorded since the charity first started surveying children's reading habits in 2005. The survey also found a marked gender divide when it comes to reading for pleasure: less than half (47%) of boys were keen readers, compared with 60% of girls.
Unfortunately, these figures make sense to me. In the digital age where we expect information and entertainment faster and faster, it does not surprise me that children who have grown up with the internet (or who were introduced to it during our childhood or teenage years, like me) have a much shorter attention span and might find it difficult to sit down for long periods of time reading. Absorbing entertainment through the medium of books takes a lot more work on the part of the reader than it would to sit and watch a Youtube video or television show.
But why should this change? You can get what is ostensibly the same information from watching the film adaptation of Little Women as you can from reading it. Below I am going to make the case for fighting to keep bookshops alive and ensuring we all pick up a book at least every once in a while.
Reading expands the mind: Reading has been proven to keep our minds young, healthy and sharp! Studies show that reading can even help to prevent diseases such as alzheimer's. You don't need to be challenging yourself, don't worry you wont be more at risk if you don't read Ulysses, even a skim-read of 50 Shades of Grey can keep your mind active.
Reading allows for creative thinking: Reading can inspire you when you are feeling bored, down or in a rut.. It can help give you that very needed pick-me-up without having to search too far for it. Reading helps get the creative side of your brain thinking, unlike television that really does not use much creative brain power.
Reading helps to improve concentration: Reading can train our mind how to focus properly, which is invaluable in nearly everything we do on a daily basis - I know I find it hard to keep my focus at times, but I always find it easier to get stuck into a book and leave my phone aside than I do when watching a film or TV show.
Reading can broaden your perspectives: You don't have to read non-fiction, or textbooks or biographies to broaden your perspective on life. Even seeing the world through the eyes of a fictional character might change the way you think about your world.
Reading can help you destress: We often turn to fantasy films or TV to escape anxiety-inducing real world events or stresses in our own lives. Not only can reading help you to destress by taking you out of your own head for awhile but, studies have found that a mere six minutes of reading was shown to reduce muscle tension, and slowed down the heart rates of readers as well.Overall, it reduced stress levels by an impressive 68%!
There are a myriad more reasons why reading is essential to enjoying life and making you a more well-rounded individual, I could go on and on! Take the 5 reasons above as a starting point, go forth and read and you never know what you might discover about yourself!
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