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In today’s world do you think people are reading more or less? Why or why not?

In today’s world do you think people are reading more or less? Why or why not?

Katie #questionnaire

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46 Answers

Belén

Less. Because of the technology, phones, and social media is taking over our society. It’s so unfortunate. I wish I had the ability to convert a non-reader into a book addict.

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Donna

Less because of social media also because schools don’t require children to read as much as they use to. I am so glad I didn’t have social media back when I was a kid

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Belén

I agree with schools. My senior year of high school in English class we did absolutely NOTHING in there. We didn’t even have an assigned book. That class was basically a waste of my time.

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KatieQuestion author

I’m 26 now but when I was in school it was required to read the last 10 minutes of every class. I loved it.

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Donna

@Katie yes I am 42 now and we used to do 10 minutes at the end but we also did parp. We also did a lot of book projects not reports but a project where we could learn about new books

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Bethany

Less because of internet, nooks.

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Jake

People are reading more. I’m pretty sure that’s in the statistics. Book sales have been rising super steadily, the only thing that’s fluctuating is ebook vs physical – with (the last time I saw it) physical bringing it back.

Books are easier to get hold of than ever. Libraries are still a thing. I can order a book online and have it delivered tomorrow. I could order a book and have it sent to my phone or my laptop this *second*.

Movie tie-ins make people want to read. Graphic novels are less stigmatised then they used to be (nerd culture is cool now, yay); and the colossal takeover of superhero films has pushed comic books into another golden age, with DC wiping all their old canon and starting again literally from fresh a few years back (which they should do with their cinematic universe).
The markets know how to get people involved and how to ensure more people buy more and more books. Self-publishing is more respectable now (though not entirely) and that pushes even more sales.

People don’t have to be hardcore fanatics (like most of us, probably) to read. People who steal five minutes before beds are still readers and, you know what – that doesn’t impede their social media time.

We’ve had TV’s for decades and people still aren’t distracted from books. Before that, the cinema was a huge thing, people still weren’t distracted from books.

People are reading. Look at the forums. NaNoWriMo (a writing group, but every good writer is a reader). Reddit (r/books, r52books, etc). The various dozens of facebook groups, twitters groups and hashtag madness.

People are reading.

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Tiffany

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Tiffany

People do NOT seem to understand this.

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Tiffany

I admin one of the biggest book buy sell swap groups on FB. People are DEFINITELY reading.

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Jake

And this doesn’t even touch on poetry, audiobooks, the accessibility of podcasts have pushed – not novels – but stories, essentially serialised audiobooks – and legit poetry, short story, and book-discussion podcasts.

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Diane

Much less. They are all too interested in social media, video games, and streaming services

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Amy

As opposed to when? I’m pretty sure the statistics are saying more.

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Tiffany

There are several studies out that say that reading has actually increased, just not in the traditional book sense. Online, web readers, Kindles etc.

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Amy

Yeah I’ve seen those. I’ve also read that people are reading less literature but more in general. (Literature doesn’t include things like non-fiction). Also with the invention of audiobooks and ebooks reading it way more accessible to people with disabilities.

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Tiffany

@Amy I personally feel like people are tired of reading the same things (older/classic literature)

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Ash

More I think, because its becoming more accessible. People with poorer sight can read on e-readers because they can adjust the text size to what they need. People with dyslexia can have coloured filters on the screems which can help them read. Audio books are becoming hugely popular so people who CANT read can still enjoy novels 🙂

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Ash

Plus people even on social media are reading all the time. People click on news articles and read those, they read magazines and blogs. Maybe novels arent AS popular as they used to be but as a whole people are reading more

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Lynn

Less, too many other attractions and distractions.

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Arielle

Statistics show people are reading more. People are just too jaded to see it.

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Stacey

I just know I have a friend who hadn’t read a book since High School but picked up the 50 shades books and finished each in 2 days.(No nasty comments please) I was excited she was reading. She still does once a blue moon. However I am Happy to report that I have successfully converted her youngest child who is a BOOK Dragon. She is Always asking if she can go too the library(our town has a little one that was founded in 1909) and too the big library in town. That’s what she calls Barns and Noble

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Amy

Less.

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Amy

I’d GUESS less, because of the distraction of social media/cell phones

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Julie

less, technology is too tempting to give everything up and watch it on t.v., instead of reading about it.

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Melissa

Compared to when? The literate portion of Earth’s population is definitely much larger than medieval time and this probably holds true in a rather overwhelming fashion straight in through to about 150 years ago.

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Belynda

Depends on what you mean by reading books….does reading ebooks count? Does listening to audiobooks count? Cause if so, I would say that people as a whole are reading more. These options help with people that can’t afford a ton of books and/or can’t read themselves to enjoy them. It’s hard to answer without qualifications to the question. As is…I’d say more.

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Linda

More. With google and social media people are reading more

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Nilsa

Less. Too much social media!

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Tara

Less. Tv and social media have taken over quite a bit. But it’s different for my family. My family insults me for reading calling me stuck up and a know it all just because I read books. My father has a 3rd-grade reading level. He dropped out of school this year when he went back for his GED because he doesn’t understand what he is reading.

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Storm

If you just mean reading in general, I think people could be reading more. Because they are always on their phones or something, but what are they doing? Reading. Well I guess that’s what most people on their phones & Facebook & all that are doing. Reading. And writing! Or typing…
But assuming you mean books, I reckon less & less people are taking up reading books. Because parents are now on phones… Because technology is taking over classrooms.

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Deborah

Much less. Don’t want to spend the time.

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Audrey

Much much less

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Jill

I would say more. Just today I had someone in my office waiting room reading a book on their phone. We have so many different ways to read now not just hard cover or paperback books.

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Siri

More. Book sales are not suffering

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Debora

More.

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Alisa

I think they are reading more garbage (social media posts) but just about every film is turned out from a book these days so I find a lot of people would just rather watch that. Probably the same level of reading happening, just very dumbed down in society today unfortunately.

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Katherine

More. Its an escape

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Mary

Sadly, it seems like less. Someone was actually awestruck that I had a book in my hands the other day when I was at the mall.

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Tammy

Less. Not just in books but overall reading. I’d rant about it and cite a bunch of sources, but that would be TL/DR.

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Edna

Less, too focused on tv and cell phones. Not a good trade off.

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Laxmi

Sadly less.. besides people on reading groups who read voraciously.
Screen time has taken over… binge watching teleserials etc

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Holly

Far less. My generation is unfortunately letting the reading team down. Love Island, Netflix and SkyTV have officially enslaved the minds of the young, and reading just doesn’t seem to interest them even though smart is the new sexy!?

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Becky

in my family definitely less. I grew up in a family of nine, my dad was an avid reader back in the day, but out of my siblings I’m the only one who’s ever read an actual book. I have 11 nieces and nephews (apart from the two youngest cause they’re not old enough) the older ones spend all their time with their eyes fixated on mobiles, laptops or gaming consoles and it’s so sad

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Ashley

I think less, because of the social media and gadgets that were created. I think some people forgot to read books because they were too caught up with the technology that is new to their eyes.

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Tammy

I think the technology is a feature, but the decrease in readership -best as I can tell- predates most modern gadgetry. I’d point to somewhere in the late sixties, early seventies.

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Julie

They need like an explosion every 3 to 5 minutes, one of our editors couldn’t read a book, she was use to reading tweets and facebook post, she tried to read a book like 5 times. It finally worked.

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