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Books Are Doing Just Fine, Thank You Very Much. (Yes, Seriously)
Millennials are ruining everything and now they’re destroying books too.
This is a sentiment that I’ve seen repeated over and over again on the internet, from headlines to Facebook posts to concerned inspirational posters in classrooms. When E-readers were introduced in the 2000s people stumbled over themselves to publish think pieces about how the print format was ‘dead’ and the kids were going to do nothing but stare at screens, ruining reading and books forever. But as a 21 year old college student, I can tell you that not only is that not at all the case, but there's real data to suggest that social media is perhaps one of the best tools for books and publishing. It might even encourage young people to pick up a book instead of scrolling on Twitter.
In my own life, most (if not all) of my friends read — perhaps even more than their parents. Young people have endless amounts of reading material at their fingertips and are constantly consuming information, whether it’s a book or a news article or a podcast. And yes, some young people read more than others and consume different content, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t read at all. We just have access to information in different ways. I read short-form news from the NYT, Washington Post, and the BBC, long-form investigative journalism from the Atlantic…
