"Bedrotting with Moral Superiority": Why People Should Read More
In a world where 30-second TikToks are being sped up and commenters ask creators to get to the point faster, reading a book may feel unnecessarily long and antiquated. After all, if people have social media, movies and TV shows, why bother with books? A study published by iScience found that the share of Americans who read for pleasure on an average day fell from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023, a relative decrease of 3% per year, suggesting that reading as a hobby is rapidly on the decline. But reading is still a valuable activity, and its benefits are hard to replace with screens.
When people read, they can strengthen both their vocabulary and attention span. Books expose readers to unfamiliar words in context, helping them understand and remember new vocabulary. Reading also requires readers to stay focused on a story for longer than they would on a short video or post. A study published in Psychological Medicine found that children who began reading for pleasure early had better attention and cognitive skills later on. Following a book's ideas and details gives readers regular practice in maintaining their focus. With no images and sounds supplied, reading is an activity that has fewer external stimuli than watching shows or movies, which means it requires more imaginative and cognitive effort so readers can picture the story.
The benefits of reading go beyond individual intellectual skills; reading can also help people understand one another. By reading a book, one puts themselves into others' shoes. Whether a story is based on real events or made up, following a character's thoughts and feelings introduces readers to perspectives different from their own. Research discussed in TIME links reading fiction with activity in brain areas involved in social understanding, and the Centre for Adult Education summarizes studies that connect literary fiction with greater empathy. When readers connect with a character brought to life entirely through words on a page, they learn to care about someone else's feelings. If they can feel empathy for someone fictional, it follows that they can better understand and relate to the emotions of real people, too.
Perhaps the most important reason to read is also the simplest: it's fun. Books give readers the opportunity to explore topics people have debated for centuries, such as love, guilt, identity, life and death, through characters and stories rather than lectures. The beauty of reading is that the possibilities are endless: a classic and a contemporary novel might approach the same question differently and reach different conclusions, or they might portray the same human struggle in entirely different scenarios. Either way, they offer new perspectives while keeping readers entertained. As George R.R. Martin most notably said, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
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