Are people reading less?

superdestroyer writes:

Look around the next time your on an airplane and see who still reads novels/books (either the analog or digital versions). Most 20/30 somethings are watching bad movies on their tablets while older people are the ones who still read.

Once upon a time, when you were outside your house, the ONLY thing you could do to entertain yourself was to read a book or a printed newspaper. Now there are a zillion other things you can do.

And yes, I think I read fewer books because it's so easy to surf the web, watch something via Netflix, or play some videogame instead of reading.

I am not sure if this is really such a bad thing as it sounds to old fogies.

Comments

[euro]

Yes, it is a bad thing.
From "The Civilization of Illiteracy" http://www.nadin.ws/archives/429
Toward "The Marching Morons" http://www.scribd.com/doc/23657356/The-Marching-Morons

[Scipio Africanus]

On the NYC subways it seems like roughly half and half (excluding people who are obviously listening to music.) But the subways have a lot of SWPLs, who almost certainly have a very high rate of frequent reading.

[Mercy Vetsel]

HS: "it's so easy to surf the web... instead of reading."

After surfing this post I decided to read something, but carrying books and magazines around is such a pain. If only there were a way to READ things on the web...

Mercy

[SOBL1]

There is a difference in mind engagement between the active participation of reading vs. the passive participation of watching a movie or tv show.

Is reading always about entertaining yourself? Is that all life is about?

[Squints]

Airplanes will probably produce a bad sample for various reasons. It would be unwise to visit your local coffee shop and infer that everyone reads (and knits). Also, since the price of reading material is extremely low shouldn't the demand be far greater?

[Robert]

I used to read two or three books a month until I bought an iPhone three years ago. Now I read about one a month, although the time I spend reading overall is about the same. Now I just waste a lot of time reading HBD related material on my phone, but that isn't so bad because more than half of the books that I was reading three years ago were fiction. I'm 33.

[Steve]

Why would I read 18 pages of "The Marching Morons" when I can read a summary on Wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons

How much of my time is "The Marching Morons" worth? Very little.

[AE]

@Mercy

"After surfing this post I decided to read something, but carrying books and magazines around is such a pain. If only there were a way to READ things on the web..."
-----

Try an eBook reader, such as the Kindle. If you get a basic model without all the added multimedia features, the battery will last for days between charges.

[anon666]

I read books on my phone using the Kindle app. People think that would be annoying, but it's surprisingly easy, and probably just as much so on a tablet. To bystanders, it might appear that I'm just fiddling with my phone, when in actuality, I'm reading a book. It's not always apparent what people are actually doing with these devices.

[Frank]

The Young Adult section is the most profitable and robust segment of the publishing industry. Young readers are literally the ones keeping the big publishers afloat.

[destructure]

I have to read because it calms me down and helps me shut noise out. But my whole family is voracious readers too. Let me brag on one of my sons. A couple of years ago, my son read the entire Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series in about 6 months. In case your not impressed, that's almost 6000 pages written at a 5th to 7th grade level. He was in 1st grade at the time.

[chesswife]

I spend almost every spare moment reading but I'm reading message boards and blogs. I'm ashamed to no longer be reading books. Every so often a cookbook or a young adult novel (easy on the brain) catches my eye, but that's it.

My kids read voraciously and have shown no interest in anything but print books for it.

The two NYPL branches local to me have fewer and fewer books over the years. Does anyone know why? They're not being replaced with anything; the number of computers available for public use has remained steady. I could understand not buying new books if the public isn't interested, but why get rid of what was already there?

[Poniot]

Oh do we read, or shall we repeat? Maybe Heisman was onto something? He was: life is meaningless, a DNA molecule learned to replicate itself 4 billion years ago. That's it. No god, no fairy tales. Crude, dumb forces creating a world we