by Jeff Cann
At the onset of the COVID pandemic, I stopped reading. I rarely watched TV, never played video games, and with Facebook as my only social media distraction, I hardly ever doom-scrolled. Yet my screentime quadrupled. Instead of reading nightly, I bounced back and forth between the Johns Hopkins Covid Map and a couple of news sites that showed continuous COVID updates. I worried that when the apocalypse broke out, if I didn’t know immediately, something bad (worse than the apocalypse?) would happen. This went on for months.
It’s amazing how humans can adapt to stressors, fear, and uncertainty. At some point, I joined billions of others accepting ‘the new normal.’ I set my laptop aside and picked up a book. And… I couldn’t read anymore. I couldn’t concentrate on the story. Sure, I read a few pages, but then my brain craved a hit—something fresh, something exciting. I put down my book and picked up my phone. Or I did a chore. Or I went to bed. Whatever. I didn’t read. I joined the eighty-four percent of Americans lacking the attention span to read.
A new study published in the journal iScience has found that only sixteen percent of Americans take time for leisure reading each day. This isn’t just about reading books; it includes newspapers and magazines as well—really any sustained reading that is not performed for work or school. This is a forty percent drop over the past twenty years. About half of the American public didn’t read a single book in 2023. Readers are becoming rare, much like Ahab’s white whale, the basilisk Harry Potter killed, or some other literary scarcity. The study didn’t offer an exact cause, but I find it curious that the twenty-year drop aligns almost perfectly with the proliferation of smartphones.
It took me a few years, but I’ve restored my pre-COVID pleasure-reading mojo. I’m back to reading books on a regular basis. Like many positive activities, including exercise, reading is a habit that needs to be nurtured. And for the brain, reading isn’t much different than exercise. Reading protects against cognitive decline as we age; it reduces stress; it improves vocabulary. It boosts mental well-being, eases sleep, and even helps people develop empathy for others. As a lifelong reader, I’ve learned about other professions, hobbies, cultures, countries, and points of view. I see myself as a better person for this.
The iScience study also points out that only two percent of those surveyed spent any time reading with children. Now, clearly, not everyone has a child in their life to read with, but the importance of reading to children cannot be overstated. Many of the benefits mirror those just stated for adults—cognitive enhancement, language skills, and empathy development. Reading with a child strengthens the bond between the child and the adult. Also important, it boosts the child’s kindergarten readiness.
Adams County Library System has just been named the Dolly Parton Imagination Library local champion for Adams County, Pennsylvania. The Imagination Library is a multinational program that mails free, age-appropriate books to children once per month for the first five years of their lives. Just think, a child enrolled in the Imagination Library from birth will have sixty high-quality children’s books in their home by the time they start kindergarten. Any child residing in Adams County, ages zero to five, can join this program. For more details and to sign up, head to our registration page. Now every Adams County parent and young child can build their own library and read together, for free.
Jeff Cann is Finance Director at the Adams County Library System.
jeffc@adamslibrary.org
The Adams County Library System is participating in the 15th annual Adams County Community Foundation Giving Spree on November 6th and is number 15 in the donor guide. For more information on how you can make an impact in Adams County, visit ACCFGivingSpree.org.