Reading books in the age of the internet: Less time or are we just lazy?
It’s no understatement that the rise of the digital age has affected the way we read things. According to Kantar, British people claim to read on average around four books a year but even these numbers are averaged out by avid readers. It’s not that we haven’t stopped reading, however, as we happen to be reading all the time- news articles, tweets, memes, and countless comments and messages flood our phone and laptop notifications every day. But we seem to have stopped reading books, at least, as much as we used to. A book started in April can be left on the bedside table until late September before it is actually finished. The average British person can spend around five and a half hours of general reading (not specific to just books) per day but will happily spend seven to eight hours binge-watching shows on Netflix and Amazon. This summer, Netlix’s show Stranger Things broke records by having 18.7 million of its 40.7 million viewers finish the show in its entirety within four days of its release. It is difficult to imagine a similar thing happening with a book series.
Strangely enough, despite the average British person reading four books per year, they actually purchase an average of nine books per year, meaning that we might not necessarily be reading books but we definitely haven’t stopped buying them. But why is this? Why are we buying books if we’re not reading them? The answer might lie in the fact that we are in the age of social media- when snapping pictures of books considered to be ‘controversial’, ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘trendy’ will get you a couple of hundred likes on Instagram or Facebook within a few hours. The arguably embarrassing trend of the ‘shelfie’- a photo taken to show off to the internet the contents and aesthetic of one’s bookshelf- is still going strong, with the hashtag #shelfie having over 1.7 million recent photos on Instagram and the hashtag #bookstagram having over 35.7 million posts.
The solution to this problem isn’t exactly clear. The libraries that have actually managed to remain open (nearly 130 British libraries were closed down this year due to a lack of funding and support from volunteers) have been busy scanning and uploading books that are considered to be in the public domain onto the internet, to encourage the readers who don’t want to go out and spend money on books but still don’t want to visit the actual library, to download the pdf and read the book online for free instead. During the early 2010s, there was even an increase in e-book and kindle sales, suggesting that maybe if people weren’t reading physical books they were at least taking advantage of the new technology and using it to read online that way. However, recently, e-books and kindle sales have dropped dramatically in the last few years, seeing an increase in the sales of physical books once more.
Readers looking for actual ways to increase their reading habits might decide to attend a book club or visit their local (and most likely, struggling) library to give themselves a deadline. Bingeing books during the holidays, weekends and bathtimes can also work. Spend a little time finding books that interest and appeal to you, not the internet or the two-hundred or so followers that you might have on your social media. Read books that are quicker, shorter and easier to get through during the busiest weeks. The novella (a genre of literature popular with the author Ian McEwan) has likely seen a rise in sales for this very reason. What might work best however is deciding to pick up your phone or the TV remote a little less and try to put those newfound hours aside to read a little more.
