Reading
- Gigi Pennoyer
- Dec 6, 2021
- 1 min read
Reading is a great way of spending your time. While everyone reads different amounts of books, it is an important thing to do. It has so many benefits: It stimulates your brain, it gives you knowledge, it widens your vocabulary, and much more. It is also a relaxing stress-free way of spending your time. Depending on what you read, it can also inform you immensely of the history of our world. When I talk to my mother, father, or sister about literature, I can’t help but think about how much less I read than they do. If I had to guess, we read significantly less than people in older generations did at our age. While I think there are many factors that contribute to this, social media is definitely a big reason. According to a journal called Smartphone Use and Physical Activity among College Students in Health Science-Related Majors in the United States and Thailand, college students may spend an average of 8-10 hours per day on smartphones. Reading is an important part of our lives that needs to be prioritized. The question is, how can we do this?
Penglee, Nattika et al. “Smartphone Use and Physical Activity among College Students in Health Science-Related Majors in the United States and Thailand.” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 16,8 1315. 12 Apr. 2019, doi:10.3390/ijerph16081315
I think it is important to realize the cognitive and mental health benefits that come with reading. It should be promoted as an alternative to spending time on smartphones. However unfortunately social media has been created intentionally to be addictive.
I really resonate with this post. Every year I try to make an effort to read more books and expose myself to more diverse and informative literature but for some reason it never happens. Instead, I find myself doom scrolling on Tiktok or Twitter and before I know it, hours have passed by - precious hours that could have been spent learning something new while engrossed in the pages of a good book.