Is Reading Outdated?

Post date: Oct 27, 2017 2:57:55 PM

Published on 10/27/17 By Karrington Butler, '18

A young woman is depicted reading from a Kindle while she sits outside. Kindles and tablets have become on of the easiest and most popular ways for young people to enjoy literature. Photo courtesy of Dave Dugdale on Flickr.com

Baby Boomers and Generation X like to blame Millennials and Generation Z for killing lots of things; the downfall of Applebee’s, going on vacation, and not buying diamonds. The one thing Millennials and Generation Z didn’t kill is reading.

In today's society, people have this preconceived notion that millennials hate to read and that it’s a thing of the past. According to the latest Pew Research Center survey on book reading, 18 to 29-year-olds are the age group most likely to have read a book in any format over the past year. Sarah Everingham, ‘21, proved that theory right. When asked the last time she read a book for fun she responded with “yesterday” and that she really enjoyed it.

Millennials and Generation Z do read, just in a different way. People make the assumption that just because they don’t go to the library, it means that they are not interested in books. In reality, instead of walking to the library and borrowing books, they just buy the book online. Buying books from Amazon and reading it on your phone or on a Kindle has become exceptionally easy and cheaper. Some ebooks prices are as low as .99 cents. Even if a millennial hasn’t read a New York Times bestselling book in three years, there are other ways to read. Magazines like Vogue and Seventeen have entertaining information that people enjoy reading and that's okay. Even reading a 560 word article that's about dogs getting married in a barn counts as reading.

Reading is not outdated, it is simply evolving. Nothing stays the same, so expecting younger generations to read the same way isn’t realistic. Reading cannot be classified as just simply reading a paperback book. With technology taking over, it is bound to change and Baby Boomers and Generation X need to accept that.