Researchers Have Shockingly Discovered That Teens Are Using Social Media More Than They're Reading Books
WaPo- A new study has alarming findings, but is probably not surprising to anyone who knows a teenager: High-schoolers today are texting, scrolling and using social media instead of reading books and magazines. In their free time, American adolescents are cradling their devices hours each day rather than losing themselves in print or long-form media, according to research published Monday by the American Psychological Association. In fact, 1 in 3 U.S. high school seniors did not read a book for pleasure in 2016. In the same time period, 82 percent of 12th-graders visited sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram every day. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and one of the authors of the study, said the lack of leisure reading is troubling. For her, the most important discovery hidden in the data is this statistic: In the 1970s, about 60 percent of high school seniors reported reading a book, magazine or newspaper every single day. Four decades later, in 2016, 16 percent of high school seniors reported doing so.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOW. Unbelievable! I’m stunned. Consider me stunned. Who woulda thought? I thought for sure that was gonna go the other way. When given the choice between Twitter and Instagram or Pride and Prejudice I would’ve bet my life that teens were reaching for Jane Austen. What can social media provide that books can’t? A good book should be all the mental stimulation a teen needs.
Seriously though. Why are there studies being done on this? Talk about a waste of resources. How much did this new study cost? Anything over one (1) penny is too expensive. Just crowd source that shit for the answer. Ask anyone, literally anyone in the world, if kids are using social media more than reading books nowadays. 101 people out of 100 will tell you teens are using more social media. Books aren’t even a thing to people under the age of 23. Books have gone the way of phonebooths, magazines, condoms*, paper maps and enunciating rappers according to that generation. I get it. I don’t read books anymore. Nobody does. Why read a book when you can scroll back 97 weeks on your ex’s Instagram ? Books can’t come close to competing with that kind of rush. They never stood a chance.
*Are the youths using condoms these days? Feels like they’re not. I have no evidence to back that up but feels like the youths don’t use condoms. Not sure why I feel that way. It’s just the vibe I get. Then again, every generation says they’re using condoms but nobody’s actually using condoms. It’s the longest running public health thing everybody says they’re doing but they’re definitely not. Nobody uses condoms. Sorry to expose that.