In today’s age of technology and the internet, reading is slowly disappearing from hobbies listed by teens. Many teenagers see it as a job or something that’s required of them for school that they have to trudge through. We’re glued to screens and not many of us truly enjoy reading for pleasure. Of course in any group of friends or handful of teens, you’ll find a couple people who absolutely love to read and will go through a few books in one month, but the majority would rather do anything else.

Why don’t teenagers like to read anymore? It’s likely a combination of electronics, age, and accessibility to time. Many students participate in one or more sport, take AP (advanced placement)  classes, or participate in the arts. Some even do all three of them. Other teenagers have absolutely no interest in reading, they view it as a chore like washing the dishes or vacuuming. Society has also projected this image of a reading as something only “nerds” do. It has become normal to shun reading as something that’s not as socially acceptable as hanging out with friends or watching Netflix.  This isn’t just a problem parents or kids need to tackle, but something society as a whole needs to work on.

With all the technology that we have access to, teenagers would simply rather be on their phones or laptops or watch tv. While teenagers probably read more now than ever before, they read them in snippets of articles or short blurbs on the Internet instead of novels. Teachers assign books that students don’t find interesting and then students start to despise reading. Even those who love to read books dislike being told what to read for a grade. Reading helps you develop better language skills and understand grammar better. Reading enough can increase your reading speed which, along with the other skills, can help you on standardized testing. There are so many benefits to reading that aren’t emphasized enough.

A lot of people who love to read books as teenagers often read when they were children and their parents encouraged them or read to them; I know that my mother would read my dad books in long car rides and my sisters and I would listen as well. Now all three of us love to read. Others were never encouraged to read or simply didn’t have enough access to books. There are a lot of ways to encourage people to start reading at young ages so it becomes a habit well into adulthood. Teenagers and kids should be encouraged to read more by parents, peers, and teachers. Everyone has access to the Internet and that is a wonderful source of eBooks that people can utilize if they don’t feel like buying or borrowing actual books. You can even borrow eBooks from the library to read on a device. There are so many ways to access and enjoy books that teenagers simply do not use.

With all the access they have, teenagers should have a greater range of books to read but they simply don’t. It’s simply time to make reading great again.