Declining interest into reading books in India despite the increase in literacy rate in 2022

In recent years, India has celebrated significant growth in education, with a noticeable increase in literacy rates as a whole nation. Every state has made a measurable contribution with their current and rising literacy rate to the overall literacy growth rate in India. Despite the growing number of literate individuals, there appears to be a decline in interest when it comes to reading books. This shift raises questions about the evolving dynamics of literacy and the factors influencing the reading habits.

What are the potential causes for this decline or what factors are contributing to the downfall of this interest?

After spending time reading the possible causes and understanding the nature of the factors, I have come down to a few things which made sense to me. I am elaborating them there for your review. If you also believe in what I found, you can post your comment and share your opinion. If you don't believe in what I found, you can still comment and share your reasons. If you are reading this post now and you reached until this point, possibly you are curios about the causes I am highlighting below and if you find your interest slowly fading away, one of the causes is highly affecting you. Either way, it won't take long to completely read this article. Let's get down to business!

Too much of digital distractions:

Technology has evolved as a boon to many people in India. In population, we may have taken over China recently but when it comes to digital population, we are still the top second largest population in the world. People depend on technology to make their life transactions easier. There are many reasons why we use technology. One of the reasons is finding some entertaining content, which reduces our stress. I say, anything that is done under some certain limit is acceptable, but post lockdown we have been totally dependent on technology that we unknowingly spend a good deal of time watching irrelevant content, follow namesake influencers, get some updates on the trend we follow, and anything else, you can name it. This has become a potential cause for the decline. Don't believe me, recall when was the last time you bought a book. Did the length of the book bother you? Did you choose the book because he/she is your favorite author or you liked the title therefore you want to read it seriously? Did you count the number of hours you can possibly spend finishing the book? Did the time bother you? Yes, now count the number of hours you spend on checking the updates on social media. Not just for the day, count in a week time and calculate it in a month. To do this, you can still use your mobile device and check the screen time. Still dependent on technology, huh?

I guess this should be enough for you to understand the point I am making. As a sensible and intellectual person, you can do all the Math, Estimation, Calculation, etc. all by yourself.

Instant Gratification:

In the past paced world and super sonic routines these days, majorly for the people living in the metropolitan cities, people are gradually getting adapted to instant gratification. Whatever or whenever I complete anything, I need immediate feedback or response from the people. Reading on the contrary, is a time consuming process. Imagine yourself holding a book which is 400-600 pages thick, how long do you think you need to completely reading it? A week? Two weeks? A month? Depending on your lifestyle routines, you can have shorter or longer time to complete the task. But ask yourself the same question, do you need immediate gratification or you have all the patience in the world to finish the thick book.

We need certain things or tasks in life, for which we need immediate gratification such as Social media posts, Online shopping, Financial decision such as intraday trading, Instant communication, etc. When we look for long-term benefits, instant gratification will only cause damages. Imagine asking this question to a stock market trader who prefers long-term investment, does he/she bother if the intraday traders are making good returns and change his decision, does he/she bother if the market fluctuates a little bit? He has made his decision to achieve good returns therefore he patiently waits for the opportunities to make better profits.

Reading has helped many individuals in managing and reducing their stress levels. As per the study given a blog by Steven Zauderer "Regular reading has been shown to lower stress levels by as much as 68%. 50% of people that read before going to bed have better sleep than people who don't read. More than 98% of people that read right before bed advise others to do the same." You can read the statistics given the blog by visiting this link: https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/reading-statistics#:~:text=Regular%20reading%20has%20been%20shown,others%20to%20do%20the%20same.

There are scientific data available about the impact of regular reading on the brain. Such study is available on many research portals such as researchgate, academia, and eric.

If you'd like to know the strategies for building reading habit, read my next article. I appreciate you for spending your time to reach until here. Please like the post so that I will you have completely read this article and are ready to identify some strategies to help build your reading habit too.

Thank you,

Amjad Razal