If I tried to recall the last time I read a book just for fun, I would fail miserably. Granted, many people are distracted by the constant entertainment they find in their cell phones and computers, but simply reading a story can be just as enjoyable. Although I have peers who do make the time (and have the patience) to read book after book, I merely entertain the idea for a few moments before I realize I won’t commit to it all the way through.
This isn’t because I don’t want to – as a child, I was addicted to re-reading my set of the Harry Potter series until the pages wore out. Books provided a source of comfort and fueled my vivid imagination when I was growing up. Without the stories I immersed myself in, my childhood would’ve been incredibly boring. However, as I got older and wiser, technology did too. Now, you can find more stories beyond the books in the palm of your hands. But as much as I would like to believe that’s what we’re using our phones for, the reality is we’re scrolling through our Twitter feeds for hours on end instead. And, it's not limited to just that - 71% of teens use more than one social media site. So, why is that?
The answer I’ve come up with is that we simply lack the attention span to commit ourselves to what we interact with. This phenomenon isn't something that has gone unnoticed, but has been researched before. Many times we access our favorite social media sites, we don't even notice how it may be shortening our attention spans. We can find the same happiness and ways to distract ourselves with the touch of a keyboard, rather than sitting idly and reading a book. Reading an entire novel could take a day, whereas you could interact with the world online in a few moments. Whether it’s watching a six-second Vine or conducting a quick Google search, our attention is no longer needed for more than a few brief moments.
This kind of lack of attention causes us to take shortcuts. Often times, I find myself skimming through text, only to retain key words and phrases that stick out. If I’m given a PDF reading assignment for school that’s 50 pages long, you can bet that I’m going to search for key words until I find specifically what I need to know. With the instant gratification of information readily available at our fingertips, why should we have to?
Like I said before, many people do read often – and for that I admire them, because it’s a hobby I want to revisit. However, I know that my passion for books translated to other outlets as I grew up, like social media, and I wonder if that applies to others just as much. Although not everyone uses their devices as much as I do, many members of our technology-infused generation do. We may be more resourceful, but we might just be missing out on a lot more than we think.
