There was a time when the sheer core of luxury was leisure and a good book. That time disappeared then made a mild return but now seems to have been eliminated by the gadgets of the high tech age.
A new survey shows youngsters in the 12-17 age group are increasingly abandoning books and turning to social media such as Facebook and Twitter. It is easier, it is more invasive and it’s not taxing on the concentration.
More than half (54 percent) of six to eight year-olds were frequent readers and read books for fun five to seven days a week, but this dramatically declines over the teenage years, the study found.
The survey indicts the growing years for the falling graph. There is peer pressure to be part of the social networking options. A child’s enjoyment of reading also declines with age, with 80 percent of those aged six to eight reporting that they love or like reading, compared with just 43 percent of 15-17-year-olds.
As children turn their backs on books as they get older, they are spending more time playing games or logging on to the Internet via tablets or smartphones instead.
Three-quarters (76 percent) of 15 to 17-year-olds visit social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter five to seven days a week and 80 percent go on smartphones this often.
Though the survey showed that the allure of the screen in the digital age is more tempting for youngsters, a majority of them expressed preference for printed books over e-books. The survey was commissioned by Britain-based children’s publishing company Scholastic in conjunction with YouGov. It questioned 1,755 parents and children about reading habits.
It’s not just the cheap and cheerful (?) net fun that attracts children. It is also the home and school environment that impacts on a drop in reading. If parents feel the screen of the computer is a good enough substitute they will not incur expense in buying books. Between the time spent on studies in what is now seen as white hot pressure in classrooms and extra-curricular activities leisure has become synonymous with vicarious involvement in other people’s lives on social media. There seems to be no time left to read. The classics in any language have been left behind, more’s the pity. But even well researched fiction and non-fiction of the popular genre is slipping.
There was a time when a visit to a bookshop was mandate. Now, a trip to the audio-visual stores has replaced the zeal.
At airports bookshops were the place where passengers made a beeline. Now the bookshops ate the top airports in the world are largely secondary and sell more confectionery and magazines than they do books.
