Reading for fun has declined by a 40%

[Wrath of Foamy]

We do read. We read shit on the internet.

 

[Contempt]

We do read. We read shit on the internet.

...also write shit on the internet, don't forget that part

 

[Wrath of Foamy]

...also write shit on the internet, don't forget that part

Yeah!

I have decades of experience reading and writing shit on the Mayberry!

I have picked up reading books again though. I had a brief stint reading Stephen King and Iain M Banks books in my twenties, but lost interest.

I've started with the Abroad in Japan book and I have the er.....Dow of Master Ken book...

I also have a book of general world history and a lovely planet overview on every country to get through.

 

[Killer Whale]

I'm a big reader. I challenged myself to read a book a week last year and ended up reading 54 books in total. I felt immensely proud of myself after finishing that 52nd book.

What are your top 3 recommendations.

 

[FléauDeDieu]

@FléauDeDieu If you can expand without doxxing yourself, I'd like to know what you type of fiction you write and if you've been published by any of the bigger publishers?


@Cole train You should start a book club for strippers. You can use all 3 cards for it and if you film it and put it on youtube I'm pretty sure monetize it for big big bucks.

I haven't been published by any of the major trad pubs yet, though I've queried a few times for children's books.
I write and self pub romance fiction, mainly sapphic, oddly enough. I first started with erotica but realised I liked writing love stories and people falling in love more than I did smut for the sake of smut.
I'm not really good at writing smut either - it just doesn't come naturally to me. I like first kisses and passionate confessions, which is odd for a man, but I feel sometimes my personality is more akin to a woman's than a man.

 

[TrueBias]

This has never made sense to me.

We're all reading right now.

 

[Batjester]

This has never made sense to me.

We're all reading write now.

*right.





Had to be done.

 

[wwkirk]

Between 2003 and 2023, the proportion of Americans who read for fun on a given day has been steadily falling, a new study suggests​

Reading for fun has been declining since the 1940s. However, the “sustained, steady” drop over the past 20 years is “deeply concerning,” says study co-author Jill Sonke, research director at the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida, in a statement.

The results are troubling because reading has always been “one of the more accessible ways to support well-being,” adds co-author Daisy Fancourt, a behavioral health researcher at University College London, in the statement. “The research is clear: Reading is a vital health-enhancing behavior for every group within society, with benefits across the life-course.”

Reading for Pleasure Has Declined by a 'Deeply Concerning' 40 Percent Over the Past Two Decades

Between 2003 and 2023, the proportion of Americans who read for fun on a given day has been steadily falling, a new study suggests

www.smithsonianmag.com

Do you still enjoy reading?

I actually read a fair amount, but hardly any of it truly for "fun". Nonetheless, I do imbibe many books per year, sometimes a few in a month, for fun more than any other motive. How so? What's the catch?

Audible.com, Baby. Those guys love me!

 

[Rhood]

I'm really confused by this opinion.
And I call it an opinion because there doesn't seem to be any solid statistics in the article.
The article pulled stats from another article written from iScience.
Who the fuck even visits that site? No wonder their stats are so low.

Everyone that owns a smartphone reads. It's really that simple.
The article written made it seem like people are just going online for games or to check their email.
What is this? The 90's?? Gets with the times!!

 

[TrueBias]

*right.





Had to be done.

Oops.

How odd of a mistake..

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

I’ve been trying to get back to reading for leisure lately. I recently read the collected works of Robert E Howard’s original Conan stories. Next I’m going to read the complete anthology of Lovecraft.

 

[Fedorgasm]

Does it have to be a book? Or is just reading sentences good enough for your brain?

Because if you add up all the stuff I read online, then I'm reading way more than I ever did twenty years ago.

I probably read the equivalent of 10 chapters a day. 6 of them just on sherdog.

 

[F1980]

People used to read for entertainment

Why would you need to read books when you have the internet to watch entertaining stuff all day? Videogames, Tik Tok, Facebook, Youtube, Netflix, etc..

 

[bandicoot]

I read off and on. Like with everything I go through phases.

Same. I'll have one year where I read like 20 books/novels and others where I don't read even close to that.

 

[Fuzzybabyducks]

People read all the time … more now then ever . They just read different material.. Reading traditional books is for the poor. If I’m next to someone on a plane and they have a book I just assume they couldn’t afford a Nintendo switch or the data plan to use their phone in the air . It makes me sick to look at them and sometimes I will even request a new seat ..

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Does it have to be a book? Or is just reading sentences good enough for your brain?

Because if you add up all the stuff I read online, then I'm reading way more than I ever did twenty years ago.

I probably read the equivalent of 10 chapters a day. 6 of them just on sherdog.

Right, the devil is in the detail.

Our reading has (as silly as this analogy may be) has gone the way porn did.

Porn back in the day actually had perfunctory idiotic plot lines like they were real movies. Then of course gonzo took over.

If we think of the great novels general had a 5 stage formula:

Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution. I've also heard this as:
Introduction, Development, Climax, Falling Action, Denouement

Now we are basically stuck with little introduction, straight to climax, and change the channel. Music industry is the same -- studio combined with neuroscience to find the catchiest beat and a short song.

The same goes with news and people trying to understand the world -- instead of scholarly research, we jump to quick confirmation bias meme or tweet and move on.

The great irony of the TL/DR is that people will indeed doomscroll low to zero value nonsense for 5 hours a day, but will TL/DR great content if the time commitment specific to it is greater than 5 minutes.

Reality is our tech overlords have basically used limbic capitalism to get much of the population to absolutely self-lobotomize and not mature into well adjusted folks, and actually have those same folks brag about their own self-lobotomization. An amazing feat from the corporate boardroom.

Edit: Will also add it was shown people who read novels developed higher senses of empathy. People who read social media have developed higher senses of narcissism and inadequacy.


in before TL/DR

 

[Jesus X]

Gen z and gen alpha is pretty illiterate. Our future is pictures on everything like the movie idiocracy. A.i is further going to make people dumber. The over use of the word "bro" is a sign of lower vocabulary from gen Z/alpha. I even think they have a damaged frontal lobe cortex

 

[Versez]

Downfall of the western civilization, all part of the plan.

 

[RichardHarrow]

I haven't read anything this summer. Kids aren't here for a few weeks and its a convenient time for me to start War & Peace but damn it looks intimidating.

 

[RichardHarrow]

I read words all day who cares if it is in proper books or not


Elitists

You rather watch bum fights than UFC? Amateur band or the classics?