We are in the age of social media, where everything from everywhere is present on our phones within seconds. We are so informed that sometimes it feels like we know everything. However, there was a time when people were mostly informed through reading newspapers, magazines, and many other print sources.
In India, reading was not just a habit; it was and still is a cultural thing. Reading is part of our day to day life. Most of us read unknowingly, and that is one of the reasons we have been counted among the top readers in the world. The question raised today is whether the reading habit is dying, with people starting to read less and less.
That may seem true at first glance, but if we dive deeper, we find that it is not a problem of dying, but of evolution. Earlier, people read mainly because there were fewer alternatives for entertainment, but today those who read do so by choice which makes modern readers more intentional than ever before.
In earlier days, reading was a common practice for fun as well as for obtaining information, and people used to read much more than present day. In fact, my father said that he used to devour hundreds of novels in his teens, which is very fascinating to me. Looking at him now, it doesn’t feel like he is the person who once read so much. But if we look back closely at the time period of the 1990s or earlier, people didn’t really have many options for entertainment. Books were one of the few escapes from daily life, besides outdoor activities. Now that my father has options like smartphones and television, he doesn’t read as much.
So, we can say that the higher average of reading in earlier times was not only because of a higher demand for books, but also because books were one of the only few easily available options.
If we look at our generation, we are often criticised for doom-scrolling, excessive use of social media, not reading much, having shorter attention spans, and many other things. But at the same time, we forget that we are the generation that lies in the middle of many experiments. Lots of things that could replace books like the internet, smartphones, and apps have come into our lives.
Despite all this, book reading has survived in India, and I think it has not only survived but is now growing in a different way.
Many young people like me are now taking reading seriously. We are reading not only for entertainment but also for the development of our minds. In spite of so many distractions, more people are moving towards reading, and more writers are getting recognition.
Is book reading really growing?
The question does not have a simple answer. Yes, more writers are getting recognition and more books are being sold. No, because the population of casual readers may be decreasing, leaving mainly genuine readers who read for knowledge and growth. While this is a good thing, entertainment reading was also important, as it gave us pleasure and knowledge at the same time.
If we look at survey estimates, average reading hours per week in the mid-2000s were close to 10 hours. By the early 2010s, some studies suggested it had dropped to around 6-7 hours per week, and recent estimates show it remains in a similar range. By seeing this, we may feel reading has declined, but this change cannot be blamed entirely on the internet.
In the early 2010s, the internet was still developing in India and had not reached every city in the country. This shows that the shift in reading habits was part of a larger social change. The recent data showing only a small difference suggests that reading is not just an escape method but also a cultural habit of Indians.
Now, if we ask the question whether the internet has reduced the time spent on book reading, then yes, it has. But at the same time, it has given writers and readers the opportunity to connect, thrive, and survive. Now more writers are being celebrated, and books from the 1980s and 1990s are being sold again. This shows that the population of genuine readers may be growing. In India, writers like Chetan Bhagat and Vinod Kumar Shukla are popular among youth. Despite being very different kinds of writers, they have both found their recognition and their audience. So, we can say that the internet has affected reading habits, but we cannot deny that it has also created connections between writers and readers that were missing earlier.