Do people still read?

In the age of tiktok and Instagram stories/ reels, do people still have the patience to read? This is a question I often wonder. Slowly and gradually, we are moving into this era where all our senses need to be stimulated all at ones. I want to listen to a song which also has a great cinematic and appealing video. Why is listening to the song not enough for me? I can sit down (or dance), close my eyes and just soak in the music. 2020 has taught me the importance of intentional living; living life as it is going by and not thinking about enjoying my present ten or fifty years down the line.

Last year I took the opportunity of time and got down to read books for pleasure and not because I had to finish my course syllabus. I read for the joy of reading, and I found that there is no joy greater than that, when you are enjoying the present. But at times I also used to slip into the rabbit hole of social media. Well, it is designed to be addictive so it should not be a surprise when it is 9 in the morning when you switched on your phone (while still in bed) to check if you have any text messages from your friends or family and it is 11 when you realised that you were hungry and hadn’t gotten out of bed yet! It happens to the best of us, who are very much conscious of their social media usage and screen time.

So, this is why today I felt the deep sense of losing my senses to the screen. I love to read- books, blog posts, labels and stickers on shampoo bottles and so on. But today this sudden realisation hit me that if no body will read then what’s the point of writing? Will my budding dream of being a writer just be snipped right away? Can I write just for the sake of writing, just for the pure joy that it brings me? Yes, maybe I can go on like this for a while. But I will have to stop looking at my stats and analytics pages on my blog, YouTube or Instagram. My parents surely read and watch whatever I create, but the rest of the world I am not sure. But why do I feel that people are obliged to read what I write and watch what I create? Maybe that’s just my ego, which sometimes needs to be praised.

I am sure that there are thousands if not millions, who dream of being read or watched, who dream that their creative endeavour is meaningful and inspirational to other people (total strangers, and not only their parents) as well. So, it can’t be that people have stopped reading (or writing). Reading old classics for fun, reading memoirs and pulp fiction and there are people who are writing letters, blog posts (like yours truly), and novels for the sheer joy (and little bit of validation at times). I feel, in the age when our attention span is getting shorter and shorter, there are souls who still intend to live an intentional life, a meaningful life.

You can also join me on my YouTube Channel where I make videos about Literature, Self-discovery, Mindfulness, and Growth.