by Elaina Lyons

We all know that social media has slowly shortened our collective attention spans significantly. We’re done with a video in 15-30 seconds and we’re done with a topic of conversation just as quickly.

If you go to a movie theater, you’ll likely see people checking their phones throughout. It’s hard to sit through two hours of the same storyline — a lot harder than it used to be.

Reading requires a level of attention and interest that many people just don’t have anymore. So it’s easy to imagine that books would be next on the societal chopping block.

And, sadly, the numbers back it up. A 2022 study showed that Americans read fewer books the previous year than any year since 1990. And that includes all forms of books, including e-books and audio books. Pretty sad, huh?

A 2022 study showed that Americans read fewer books the previous year than any year since 1990.

Of course, we can’t know for sure that’s because of social media, but it’s easy to infer a connection.

When there’s so much constant overstimulation, books may seem like an archaic form of entertainment. Nothing moves or glows. You can’t comment or like or share the content like you can other forms of media. Reading isn’t nearly as interactive an experience as scrolling through TikTok or watching a YouTube video.

Reading requires a level of imagination that’s slowly becoming lost in the world. Now, everything is right there in front of us all the time. Your mind doesn’t have to do any work when everything is already done for you. Reading is harder on your mind. It asks you to be an equal participant in the creation of the story. You have to do the work to fill in the gaps it leaves. Your mind has to make three dimensional living, breathing figures out of mere descriptions. That’s not easy.

But man, it’s worth it.

Social media is easy. Reading can be challenging — in the best possible way.

We may be leaning away from the written word as a society, but I hope we start trending back toward it. Because there’s nothing more magical than helping to create an entirely new world and getting to live in it for the duration those pages allow.

So maybe the next time you pick up your phone to scroll through Instagram or TikTok or Facebook, try grabbing a book instead. I promise, you won’t regret it.

Grab your copy of “The Love You Know” here.

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