When I was in 7th grade we read our first novel in class. Guess what “classic” our German teacher chose?
Drum roll pleeeeaaaase…
Never heard of it? Ms. Mueller-Riemke would be aghast. It’s about a Jewish teenager in Nazi Germany who gets mobbed, bullied, becomes an orphan and then…dies.
It’s a hallmark of literature raising awareness about German history, which is great, except no 13-year old cares. I had enough problems with fitting in myself and that story definitely didn’t help.
Don’t get me wrong, the book has value, I just wasn’t ready at the time. Plus, nobody likes to be forced to do something. Especially not read.
How many books have been forced down your throat? Any chance that left a sour taste in your mouth? Of course it did.
Then, there’s the other thing. The attention thing. If you’ve been attentively reading this far, it’s about time I congratulate you: You just beat the average person in focusing!
From 2000 to 2013, the average human attention span dwindled from an already crappy 12 seconds to a mere 8. Thanks for that study Microsoft, now we know we’re worse at reading than a goldfish.
In case you just skimmed this and now feel bad about the attention thing: don’t. You’re not alone. We all have this problem. I found part of the reason why in this thing called The Nielsen Report.
Hold on to your seat. Here’s the average time we spend each day consuming media:
No, you’re not reading the graph wrong: We spend over 10 hours EVERY SINGLE DAY consuming media.
Most people spend more time looking at screens than they work.
Every day. Every. Day!!
Do you know how insane that is? No wonder most people don’t have time to read. Or even want to. And it’s not even our fault. Look what I found on BBC:
In the course of a day, the average person in a Western city is said to be exposed to as much data as someone in the 15th century would encounter in their entire life.
We’re bombarded with almost 20 hard drives full of data each day. The world really leaves our brain no choice but to shut down.
Think about that. Most of us have had:
- Bad experiences with reading at an impressionable age.
- A declining ability to focus.
- An increasing, insurmountable amount of information to deal with each day.
I’m not surprised most people hate reading. By being on Quora you’re already the exception, not the rule.
But it’s a long and uphill battle to reignite that spark too. If you still fight it, I hope I can contribute a bit to yours.
This new mini email course I made is a start. If you sign up for it, let me know what you think. 🙂
