A study done by the American Psychological Association shows that only 14-17% of teenagers actually read for pleasure daily, which is a major decline from previous years, while the use of social media daily has skyrocketed to 80%. A poll taken at Clover Hill showed that 41 out of 100 students read in their free time, making the average higher for Clover Hill students.
Even though students at Clover Hill read more than the average, it is still a prominent issue that teenagers do not read as much as previous years because of other sources of entertainment.
Math teacher Jason Blake believes that not many teenagers read anymore because of the various different types of entertainment.
“There is so many other mediums out there where people can escape to, whether it is video games, movies, or TikTok watching,” Blake said. “There is so many other things that occupy our time these days.”
Other than entertainment, another reason teenagers may not want to read anymore is because they did not grow up on books. Many individuals stick with what they are most familiar with, so they choose their phones to occupy their time because it is all they know. Senior Natalie Cutchins thinks that it does depend on what a person grew up with and what they are exposed to at a young age.
“I think it really depends on what you grew up on, my family took me to libraries a lot, so I was just exposed to it,” Cutchins said. “I think the majority of kids are exposed to phones and technology first before libraries.”
Many teenagers may not find reading to be a form of enjoyment at all and instead a task that they have to put time and effort into. School may have a huge factor in making reading less enjoyable, because every assignment in school is tied to reading. Junior Tristan Rodriguez believes that people may find reading a chore because it is related to English class and they do not have the time for reading.
“People find reading as a chore because it is related to assignments, especially in English, nobody really does it for enjoyment anymore because people do not have the time, and they do not find it entertaining anymore,” Rodriguez said.
While there are more teenagers scrolling more and reading less, there are still teens passionate about books. For them it is an escape from the exhausting digital world into the classic ways of entertainment. Cutchins is one of the few teenagers that still is passionate about the joys of reading in her free time. She shares her favorite book that she has read recently.
“My favorite book is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir because it is such a different concept. I feel like there is a lot of space books and I think it really just went outside the box compared to the normal aliens, space, and end of the world. It [Project Hail Mary] was very science related, which I loved and actually found myself understanding things and learning things. It [Project Hail Mary] did not seem too fictional, like it really felt like that could happen. Even though it would not because he wrote so well and used real world science applications to the book, that was really fun to read,” Cutchins said.
While the digital world fights for every second of a teenager’s attention, the solution could be as easy as finding that one perfect story; like Project Hail Mary that can remind a student that reading is not just an English assignment.
