The wonderful thing about older folks is that no matter what positive trends you see they will inevitably find a way to complain because they want to draw the demarcation between their ‘intelligent’, ‘hardworking’, ‘responsible’ generation and our ‘stupid’, ‘lazy’, ‘irresponsible’ generation.
wjbc on
Maybe some are, but others are not. According to research, COVID accelerated an alarming decline in child literacy. Roughly a third of kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders are missing reading benchmarks.
Reading scores for 13-year-olds have slipped to their lowest level in decades. College students are increasingly unwilling or unable to complete assigned reading.
Roughly a quarter of adults have not read even part of a book in the last year. Only about another quarter of adults have read more than 11 books in the past year.
I’m glad there are still bookworms among the younger generation. But I worry about children and adults who struggle to read.
IAmThePonch on
Not sure if I qualify as “older” (according to my birth certificate I’m at least 75 years old) but I’ve always thought reading would help the world, so if more kids actually are reading, that’s a good thing. Too many people lack critical thinking skills
cAt_S0fa on
Great! I hope you are all enjoying your books.
glittersparklythings on
I’m in my 30s. I don’t have tik tok. I personally don’t like it and never got into it. I also don’t care about reviews. I never even heard of GoodReads till I just this sub. And I still don’t use it. I just go to the book store and pick out books.
However I don’t think anything. If you want to read. Great. If you have other hobbies and don’t like to read. Don’t read. Great.
If you want to read books I have no desires or interests in. Also great. If I want to read books you have no desire on interest in. Also great.
Let’s not judge people for deciding to read / not to read. Let’s not judge people for what they chose to read or not read.
I am not better than someone bc I read and they don’t. And someone isn’t better than me bc they read what they think is a superior type of book compare to what I read. .
That is what I think. That all the judging needs to stop. I do also think the forcing peopoe to read or looking done on what they do read will never get them interested or get them to stop.
Natural-Garage9714 on
Cool. Reading is a pleasure for everyone.
Rusalka-rusalka on
It’s nice to seem some break from what felt like an inevitable trend toward less consumption of long form content. 🙂
Zinnia0620 on
I’m not sure what you mean by “the younger gen reading a lot again”. If you mean that the average number of books read per year by young readers has increased, that is false. If you mean that young readers are reading more than older readers, that’s also false.
In each generation, the top like 10% of readers do the majority of the reading (most people read 1-5 books a year but some people read 50+). Booktok is a fun outlet for that top percentage of readers, but there’s no evidence it has moved the needle on how much the average person reads.
lemmesenseyou on
I’m in my mid thirties but I made an old man working the checkout at my local bookstore SO excited when I bought a bunch of Dostoevsky as a teen and told him it was for fun, not school. So I imagine most old folk now feel similar.
My dad’s in his 60s and is thrilled kids are into nerd culture and fantasy. He’s talked more about how happy he is people play d&d than anything about books, but I imagine he’d be delighted with any kid telling him about their latest sci fi/fantasy read.
Raff57 on
I’m in my mid 60’s. I have no opinions about it one way or the other. Not sure if booktok is pushing more youngsters to read or just giving them a voice to talk about what they are reading.
I don’t use the platform myself, not do I use Goodreads.
NailFinal8852 on
It’s a good thing. Better than watching “reality” tv. I’m 37 and I think I’m the only one who reads books on the regular out of 30 cousins and I know for a fact my friends don’t read books
silibaH on
Analogue pdfs don’t count.
Professional_Dr_77 on
“Booktok” is ridiculous. Fuck that noise.
Don’t worry what other people think, read what you want and damn everyone else.
13 Comments
The wonderful thing about older folks is that no matter what positive trends you see they will inevitably find a way to complain because they want to draw the demarcation between their ‘intelligent’, ‘hardworking’, ‘responsible’ generation and our ‘stupid’, ‘lazy’, ‘irresponsible’ generation.
Maybe some are, but others are not. According to research, COVID accelerated an alarming decline in child literacy. Roughly a third of kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders are missing reading benchmarks.
Reading scores for 13-year-olds have slipped to their lowest level in decades. College students are increasingly unwilling or unable to complete assigned reading.
Roughly a quarter of adults have not read even part of a book in the last year. Only about another quarter of adults have read more than 11 books in the past year.
I’m glad there are still bookworms among the younger generation. But I worry about children and adults who struggle to read.
Not sure if I qualify as “older” (according to my birth certificate I’m at least 75 years old) but I’ve always thought reading would help the world, so if more kids actually are reading, that’s a good thing. Too many people lack critical thinking skills
Great! I hope you are all enjoying your books.
I’m in my 30s. I don’t have tik tok. I personally don’t like it and never got into it. I also don’t care about reviews. I never even heard of GoodReads till I just this sub. And I still don’t use it. I just go to the book store and pick out books.
However I don’t think anything. If you want to read. Great. If you have other hobbies and don’t like to read. Don’t read. Great.
If you want to read books I have no desires or interests in. Also great. If I want to read books you have no desire on interest in. Also great.
Let’s not judge people for deciding to read / not to read. Let’s not judge people for what they chose to read or not read.
I am not better than someone bc I read and they don’t. And someone isn’t better than me bc they read what they think is a superior type of book compare to what I read. .
That is what I think. That all the judging needs to stop. I do also think the forcing peopoe to read or looking done on what they do read will never get them interested or get them to stop.
Cool. Reading is a pleasure for everyone.
It’s nice to seem some break from what felt like an inevitable trend toward less consumption of long form content. 🙂
I’m not sure what you mean by “the younger gen reading a lot again”. If you mean that the average number of books read per year by young readers has increased, that is false. If you mean that young readers are reading more than older readers, that’s also false.
In each generation, the top like 10% of readers do the majority of the reading (most people read 1-5 books a year but some people read 50+). Booktok is a fun outlet for that top percentage of readers, but there’s no evidence it has moved the needle on how much the average person reads.
I’m in my mid thirties but I made an old man working the checkout at my local bookstore SO excited when I bought a bunch of Dostoevsky as a teen and told him it was for fun, not school. So I imagine most old folk now feel similar.
My dad’s in his 60s and is thrilled kids are into nerd culture and fantasy. He’s talked more about how happy he is people play d&d than anything about books, but I imagine he’d be delighted with any kid telling him about their latest sci fi/fantasy read.
I’m in my mid 60’s. I have no opinions about it one way or the other. Not sure if booktok is pushing more youngsters to read or just giving them a voice to talk about what they are reading.
I don’t use the platform myself, not do I use Goodreads.
It’s a good thing. Better than watching “reality” tv. I’m 37 and I think I’m the only one who reads books on the regular out of 30 cousins and I know for a fact my friends don’t read books
Analogue pdfs don’t count.
“Booktok” is ridiculous. Fuck that noise.
Don’t worry what other people think, read what you want and damn everyone else.