I "read" on "the internet" to "make myself miserable"

Maybe it’s just me but I lack the free time to get meaningful progress, if I’m lucky maybe 2-3 chapters a week by the time works and housekeeping is done. It often feels unrewarding to need to look back and remember the plot by the time I get back to the book

A decade ago I used to go through 3 books a week. Now I might read 3 a year. The world's gone to such shit that fiction almost feels too quaint to be enjoyable. I know that's not logical, but it's how it feels...and it's awful.

I used to burn through books, one Christmas my mum complained that she could've got a refund on a book I got if I hadn't folded a page to keep track of where I was because I finished it by the time we were having dinner. Then school told me I was only allowed to read books from a certain reading level they'd given me for English class, and I had to complete an evaluation test to make sure I'd understood it before I could move up to the next level. I can barely get through 3 pages at a time now because that school program killing my love of reading.

Yeah, we can tell…

Unfortunately it’s not just a US problem. It’s more of a general issue. People ‘read’ a lot, but generally the wrong things. Like social media. And it’s causing people to lose their ‘reading muscles’ so to speak.

When I first got online in 1995, forum posts were much longer and more insightful. These days you see a lot of ‘tl;dr’ attitudes.

In my opinion, reading is a fundamental part of the human experience and important in people’s general development. Reading needs to be encouraged if possible, enforced if necessary. But there’s a lot of resistance to that.

Judging by your president, I think 40% fewer Americans read. For fun or otherwise.

I discovered AO3 2 years ago and have over 400 bookmakers that I'm actively reading when they update. Don't worry everyone I'll binge read for the rest of you

My son, who is a voracious reader, mostly of classic literature (he's a really smart guy), told me recently that there is a tiktok trend going around, complaining about people reading in public, calling them "performative readers." In other words, they're not really reading those books, they're just pretending to read to show off. Now he seems a bit intimidated to be seen reading in public. I told him to ignore the idiots. They're just people who can barely read, and think everybody is as stupid as them, so they must be faking the reading.

I think a big part is the switch to audiobooks, I know a lot of my friends have moved almost exclusively to those. It's a lot easier to listen to a book while cleaning, driving, working out, cooking, etc.

I still read physical books, but I have to set aside time for it, time I could spend doing something else if I was free to just listen to it.

Since half of Americans are functionally illiterate, how would they read for fun?

Reclassify doom scrolling as recreational.

I solve problems people.

Audiobooks and a speaker headband got me back into reading.

If I have problems sleeping at least I get a story out of it. If I'm constantly replaying the same chapter it's because I'm sleeping well. I'll do a couple books/month this way.

For anyone in the US that doesn't know:

-You can sign up for your local public library online.

-Then download Libby or Hoopla.

-You can then check out books, including audio, and comics (I read all of Invincible and The Boys recently).

-They also have Movies, TV, and Music sections but I'm unfamiliar with them.

It's great and free. More people should use it. Also, physically go to you library if you can. It's a great resource and they have little clubs and get togethers if you are trying to meet people.

I started working sixty hours a week to make ends meet. Hard to spare the time.

I read because it's nice to be in a differently reality for a bit. I generally do fantasy, because the world's immersive and it's fun to get lost in. My buddy said he's reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, and I had it in the list, and it's definitely not the escape that The Stormlight Archive was.

As with others here, I also do the audiobook thing. Reading is reserved for the time before bed, 15-30m or so, and audiobooks are for when you're engaged in something that doesn't require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.

More other types of entertainment existing now.

I don't have the mental bandwidth to read Mich. I'm always exausted

I'm part of this as well. I read a ton as a kid to the point my parents took away my books as punishment. Gaming definitely did (and does) take up more and more time I could be reading with. But it's honestly been give and take. Recent games reignited a desire to read sci fi, so I got 3 books into the Dune series and read Neuromancer and some of Gibsons other short stories just this year.

I hope that we see a resurgence similar to vinyl, where physical media gets a revival. I'll admit, i read quite a few books on my phone. Maybe I'm getting old, but having the actual books is becoming more and more appealing by the day. It might be coming back guys!

Weird, I've been reading a lot more this year. But I do go through phases:

Binge Watch TV/Movies
Binge Reading
Binge Gaming

I'm in the middle piece right now. Probably 6 or 7 books in the past couple of months? Started my first read of Roadside Picnic last night, should finish it tonight.

I do a ton of recreational reading, but it's mostly articles and comments here instead of books.

I "read" a lot. Just audio books. I don't usually get time to sit down and read, but I do a lot of driving and other mind numbing chores. For that, I "read"

I count myself among the lapsed readers. I grew up as a voracious reader. I was ALWAYS the best reader in school, and always had a book with me. I even preferred to eat alone, so I could read.

Today, I can't remember the last book that I read with my eyes. I listen to audio books on road trips, but I also mix that up with podcasts and comedy videos.

In some ways, people are reading more than ever, they're just reading stuff on their phones, just not books.

Obviously the Internet plays a big role in this as people have said, but it's worth mentioning this was also the era where tv stopped sucking (from reality tv awfulness to a bunch of absolute banger dramas), AND where Netflix and then other streaming services became available. So there are huge competition effects.

I've also never bought fully into the "reading good TV bad" mindset. Leisure is leisure, especially if the article's raised point is "identifying with literary characters". That certainly happens in other forms of media. Even if it's reading to learn, I watch a LOT of YouTube these days, and probably 75% of what I watch is how to and instructional. Also let's not forget with each new form of leisure: "fast-paced music" (classical), books for the masses, magazines, tv, jazz, rock and roll, DnD, the internet, VR etc....there was always someone saying the new stuff will rot your brain while they pine for something that was maligned when it was new.

Im definately part of this one. I read voraciously up until college when I had to lay off of it during the school year or it interfered with studies to much. Was still my favorite pass time till the new millenia when the internet sorta took over (work n life and junk is maybe a bit to blame given my first decent job and getting married). Last book I read was the last book robert jordan wrote in the wheel of time series. Maybe something after that but even at the point I read that I had borrowed it from a work friend I shared an office with when he finished it. So I was way slowed down and figure that was 2005 or 2006 since he picked up the book as soon as it was available in hardcover. Oh man its been 20 years since I was big on reading. Going to be half my life soon enough.

I just built a new bookshelf for my home. Solid wood, 8ft tall, 16ft long. I even added a sliding ladder. Its ben my dream to have a bookshelf like this. I laugh at the thought years from now when the house sells again people will look at it and be pissed, like “what the hell am i supposed to do with that?!”

People are developing vastly different forms of entertainment. I play games, i would rather do that than read a book. It is more engaging to me to interact with the author's imagination in real time.

I got back into reading in the last couple of years. I was already reading a bit more, but it cranked up when I got a job with a lot of downtime. Plus, finding a topic that is endlessly interesting helps: first two-hundred years of christianity. (I’m an atheist and a history nerd.)

That makes a lot of sense.

This might make some of you uncomfortable, but it seems like this coincides with women's adoption of tech and social media.

Women already read at way higher rates than men, but since so many of them are swept up in the social media hysteria, they literally don't have time or patience to do it any more.

Interesting. I made an active choice to read more a few years ago, and now I'm reading more thani ever did before. I'm at 25 books so far this year, averaging over 600k pages each. Although many of those are audio books during my long commute, I'm still getting the stories.

We can't extrapolate data from "Americans" to say "people in general" like this title does.

Americans and declining education is not a new phenomenon nor is it global. Americans are also not role models for anything.

There's so much worse happening to society, so many more important things the media and "studies" could be pushing.

Why isn't this article about the growth in the wage gap between lowest paid and highest at companies between those years.

Why isn't it about the fact we're in a new dark age of war where starvation (Gaza) and chemical weapons (Ukraine) are being used.

"Wouldn't it be nice if people read more"

Yes, but shut the fuck up and turn your media clout to something more important. Fix the quality of life and justice issues.

The Neo-Liberal force of the media and academia are largely misapplied to both-siding Capitalism and the Capitalist Fascism it's produced, and I'm sick of it.