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Why don't more people read?

7 points by lettergram ↗ HN
I know I personally read code at least 6 hours a day, and at the end of the day still attempt to read a book of interest (usually a text book, honestly). However, when I was reviewing my Twitter and Facebook feeds I noticed no one ever mentions books. At this point I decided to ask my friends, and make a post on Facebook on it.

Of my friends in college most (only one besides myself) reads regularly, that includes assigned readings... Further, of the people not in college only a handful read regularly and two of them are my retired grandparents.

Is there a reason besides time that people do not read?

16 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 56.5 ms ] thread
bdm
"Time" is a trivial reason - by that I mean - people who don't do X don't do it because they spend their time doing not X. This is true for any X.

The real question here is - what do people prioritize above reading? And maybe a side question is, where do they get that sense of prioritization from?

zoowar
The answer is TV and, increasingly, the Internet.
Perdition
Why doesn't the Internet count as "reading"?

Most of the time I spend on the net I spend reading forums like this or reading technical articles.

The only difference between that and reading a book is that I read more authors per unit of time.

tinacgh
Though I spend about as much time reading now as I did before the Internet, my attention span dropped significantly. There are so many disparate sources of information and distractions on the Internet, that I rarely read whole articles any more.
khnd
when you say read- do you mean fiction? novels and stuff?
lettergram
I mean literally anything. Most of the people I know either watch the horrid news channels or read "I'm <fill the blank> disney character" type of stuff.
herokusaki
> "I'm <fill the blank> disney character"

I don't understand. Do your friends mostly read fan fiction (no insult intended: that's my best interpretation)?

lordCarbonFiber
One factor is diversity of options. Only a generation ago if you wanted information you would turn to a book, newspaper, or some other printed media. Now the people reading newspapers can get faster and better news online. The people reading trashy romance novels can now watch trashy reality tv. The people interested in fiction have plethora of movies, tv, and video games available at a single click. Today reading is something you'll do if you enjoy it, but sitting down with a book is no longer required.

As an aside, I think a lot more people are reading regularly than you realize. They just typically aren't sitting on facebook responding to statuses.

mapster
It's the investment to reward ratio. 5 pages read = x reward (amusement of some sort, be intellectual, comedy, suspense etc). 1 minute of reddit, Jon Stewart show, or HBO episode may provide as much.
kohanz
I think the definition of "reading" is changing. My wife reads a lot in the traditional sense and laments that I rarely (almost never) pick up a book any more. I do however read a ton of articles, blog posts, listen to podcasts, etc. My reading is almost exclusively non-fiction, while hers is mostly fiction. I am considerably more up-to-date on happenings around the world, while she has a depth of literary knowledge that I completely lack. If you quantified how much we read, I'd expect that I probably read quite a bit more, in terms of pure text, than she does.

However, to most people today, what I do is not considered "reading". I wonder if this perception will change over time.

vkb
I read at least 20 novels/non-fiction books a year, but usually I don't talk about it on Facebook because the nature of Facebook discourages these kinds of posts. I have a few other friends on Facebook who love books and are interested in talking about them, but I view FB mostly as a cocktail party full of topical conversations. Talking about literature and ideas seems to me some days to be like the guy in the corner droning on about astrophysics to an audience of socialites checking their watches.

Where do people talk about books and reading substantial? Book review blogs, publisher accounts, Goodreads, Longform, literary blogs (The Rumpus, HTMLGiant etc). These are all niche categories that "pop culture" isn't necessarily interested in.

munimkazia
I doubt if anyone I know has 6 hours (or even 1 hour) per day to dedicate to reading alone. Reading big novels is too time consuming, and those who do read, usually read articles and blog posts. Also, it is probably easier and more fun to just watch a TV show or something on the internet.
jamesjguthrie
I personally read lots of blog posts, news website articles, engineering papers (when required) etc. but find it a real struggle to read novels or lots of short stories. I enjoyed some Sherlock Holmes but lost interest after a few.

I just really prefer to consume fiction in film format and always have.

seren
I used to read a lot pre-Internet times (2-3 novels) a week. I read a lot less now. I am still an avid reader, but it requires some additional effort to carve some book time in my schedule. No twitter, no facebook, (too much hn though) no smartphone (which allows me to read in public transportation) but I am feel like I am part of a dying species. And when I will finally cave in to have Internet access 100% of the time I don't know what will happen...
adotjdotr
Laziness or just not interested enough to dedicate time to it.

I have a 2 hour commute daily so 10 hours per week. Last year I read 104 books i.e 2 per week. Perfectly do-able on a london tube journey home.

Evenings are spent watching online courses and doing the actual work, step by step at a patient pace via YouTube or a MOOC or another site like Lynda.com.

Reading is easy, no excuses. Its a matter of blocking the time out to just do it. All my mentors tell me they read for several hours per day and all run multi-million pound businesses. They also manage to have sort of sane family lives as well.

All of its do-able once you work out a system that works for you.