Is reading dead? Here's my opinion on why reading has become so difficult

When was the last time you had a genuine conversation with your friend about a book you liked? Have you ever lent a book to one of your friends? In this day and age, for teenagers, it seems more likely that you'd share your passwords than share books. According to the American Psychological Association, less than 20% of teenagers read, while 80% of them are on social media. In this article, I discuss my biggest personal problems with reading and how I am addressing them.

Required Reading in Schools

Reading has been a source of entertainment for quite some time and remains a huge form of entertainment. However, required reading in schools results in the perception that reading is an assignment rather than a form of entertainment.

Sustained Silent Reading

Sustained silent reading is a practice that is generally practiced at my school as well as schools throughout the world. Within my class, up to 15 minutes at a time is assigned to independent reading. These 15 minutes are effective, but consistently keeping up with books and constantly getting new books at times can be frustrating. However overall, it seems that this strategy may have been effective for me, as I have developed an interest in reading. However, I cannot link this to SSR exactly, as I also have an interest in reading beyond the time allocated in class. One argument that I have personally seen and agree with against SSR is the part where there may not be accountability (See Reading Stamina - Eyes on Text and Student Accountability). Reutzel's article highlights how the lack of accountability reduces the effectiveness of Sustained Silent Reading. This among many other flaws has created controversy over the effectiveness of Sustained Silent Reading.

Reading Assignments

In general, the quality of assigned reading varies from school to school, but usually, they are based on reading difficulty and require some analysis. Often the analysis is an essay. Learning how to read and analyze books is a key skill, but it also comes at the expense of harming the development of reading as a hobby. This observation was evident when my class did a "reading autobiography project" in which students wrote about their reading journey's and a ton of students reported the same thing: required reading was making them hate reading.

Focus

I encounter difficulty focusing when trying to start reading. something I’ve mentioned in previous posts is how ADHD has impacted my life. This neurodevelopmental disorder affecting 11.4% of children aged 3-17, makes it harder to focus and stay on task due to increased susceptibility to distractions. Despite my interest in reading, I find it challenging to eliminate distractions, leading to reduced reading time.

Social Media

Another thing to mention is that in 2024, social media and other forms of entertainment take up a lot of my time leaving very little time for reading. This high dopamine rise distracts me and lots of other teenagers from the importance of reading and the role it plays in providing healthy entertainment. Unfortunately, combatting this trend is incredibly difficult, but I hope to see more attempts made, as this may be a leading factor in reading decline among teenagers.

Conclusion

As I write this article and analyze my biggest reasons for failing to harness my interest in reading, I am working to improve my reading skills at home. As I continue in the next few months to achieve this goal through scheduling, research, and writing, stay tuned to my posts to find out about the next part of my reading journey, where I address the problems in this article! Subscribe using the form below to keep up with our latest posts!

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