Is No One Reading Anymore, Researchers Say Why?

Reading is cool. Reading is fun. Reading is a statement. However, now no one seems to handle a page-turner like they did in the early days.

Why are books getting boring? Is the plot becoming very predictable and transparent? Researchers might have come up with an answer to the prolonged question of why books aren’t a thing right now.

Credits: Pxhere.com

The latest research study proves that half of the UK’s population has already given up on reading by stating that they have “never read” for leisure or they don’t simply read.

How can they “never read” for pleasure? What do you mean by not for pleasure? Well, the answer is simple and quick.

Pages of Stories or Escapism from Reality?

If dated back to the history of the era, Reading was an elite act recorded from late 1750, when everyone devoutly read The Bible. Reading has since evolved either through its style or the format. A big breakthrough in the community of reading happened during the pandemic when everyone was stuck inside and had no interaction.

The writer Kimberly Bond from Harper Bazaar states in her article that she is in different worlds at the same time. Similarly, there were more who expressed their love for books and the art of reading.

The hobby or the activity of spending time reading a few pages of a book can impact a person’s life, by increasing the ability to empathize, reducing stress and strengthening one’s brain.

Books have an element within their page which makes one feel like the main character. People often choose to read more books to escape from the reality of these harsh surroundings and go into a fictional world. The books act like a coping mechanism in one way or another.

The new reading list published by The New York Times celebrating 25 years of this century has led people to check their reading list and shockingly the expected list was relatively less. The list read out that the total reads of this year [2024] is less than the reads from the year 2022.

This can be called having a reader’s block. Everyone gets this once or the other. It is quite normal to feel burnt out even from reading, but is it the actual reason why we are not reading like we used to?

What did the new research unravel?

The 2024 Report of the State of the Nation’s Adult Reading states that half the people don’t engage in reading activities for pleasure. The overview of the report states that half the population of people read actively with 15% of them being a non-regular reader.

To a point, it is true people are getting busier and busier, given their lifestyle activities but how hard can it be to read at least a page a day? The report states that the reason for the barrier for effective low reading ratios is their struggle in identifying their preferred genre of stories, however mainly the report highlights the importance of attention span.

For instance, you take a book and find a cozy spot to read but after 5 minutes you lose interest in the story and find something more interesting to give the dopamine hit instantly. This is not you being lazy, it is simply your attention span.

Shortening attention span can be caused due to many factors such as ADHD, dyslexia etc, however, the question mainly ponders around the overuse of social media and screen time making us a goldfish.

Another aspect of people not reading enough is also contributed by the books getting adapted into movies and series., but at the same time it kinda also motivates the readers to experience the paperback originals too.

Slowly and steadily, people are emerging from their cocoons and encouraging themselves and others to pick up a book and devour the story.