Photo by Devon Divine on Unsplash
Every student has that memory of Scholastic book fairs, library trips, story time, read-a-thons, silent reading time or getting that brand new Scholastic catalog or when the box set of Goosebumps that you begged your parents to buy was finally delivered to your desk.
It is now a rarity to see students of all ages read a book for pleasure, rather than because it was assigned to us. When did the anticipation of opening a new book begin to dwindle? As a result of the overuse of social media, adolescents’ attention spans have shrunk drastically and they are practically unable to concentrate on a book.
The American Psychological Association found that 80% of teenagers use social media daily, while less than 20% read daily.
Numerous studies show that social media is actively rewiring our brains, leaving us with incredibly low attention spans. TikTok is now the favored platform for children, teens and young adults who absorb quick videos that require little to no concentration or critical thought.
When comparing television to social media, shows and movies feature long-playing stories that require your attention for at least twenty minutes. Now when we’re bored, we reach for our phones and scroll through our “For You page” until an entire hour has passed and the book you’ve been meaning to read collects dust.
In any given college classroom, at least one student is on their phone or laptop, if not more, while professors plead for just 90 minutes of our undivided attention.
If our attention spans have literally been rewired, it is understandable why so few adolescents read. The feeling of impatience when you’re reading a book is like having an itch you can’t scratch, where you feel that you need to check your notifications. It makes reading feel uncomfortable, and therefore unenjoyable.
Social media doesn’t kill the desire to read, as shown on “BookTok,” but it makes it a much more formidable task than in generations before us. With so many ways to occupy our time, reading is often seen as a last resort. This might be because of the lack of attention someone can offer a book or because we are already reading so much for class. However, independent reading is incredibly valuable to developing one’s character and benefits our understanding of the world around us.
Take the long history of book bannings that our country has faced, for example. The reason that books are targeted is because they hold so much power. Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison’s book “Beloved” and many of her other works have been banned in school districts for being “explicit,” yet these books discuss the history of racism in America.
These types of novels are important for students to read as they expose us to truths that we may not otherwise encounter. If the work of Morrison and other authors is being banned in many school districts, independent reading is crucial for young adults to experience what their schools are prohibiting them from learning.
Social media only shows us brief depictions of real-world events, not detailed accounts in which the audience can truly empathize with others’ experiences. Reading is vital; social media is not. Instead of scrolling for an hour, try reading for an hour.
