By JAMILA RIZVI
A 2012 survey of more than 21,000 children has reveled that almost a fifth of them would be ‘embarrassed’ if a friend saw them reading a book.
More than half said that they preferred to watch TV.
Let’s take a moment to ponder that fact, shall we?
Reading – perhaps the most truly rewarding of all private pursuits (keep it clean, friends) – is no longer an acceptable life choice.
When I was a kid, reading was absolutely my favourite thing to do. It was books that allowed my imagination to soar in a way that drama played out on a screen could never do.
This is because books don’t give you all the information. Instead, they rely on your own creativity and consciousness to fill in the blanks and interpret someone else’s imagined world, as you want it to be.
I still love books. And I’m a big believer that you have to consume some trash along with your classics. After all, how else would you know the difference?
But there is one genre that I truly hate. And that, is the stupid, stupid vampires.
I am sure that in hundreds of years’ time, anthropologists will study generations Y and Z.
In digital lectures – where the professor appears via hologram and students absorb information by scanning barcodes with the computers embedded in their wrists – and they will wonder what we were like and what made us tick.
The teacher will ask, through some kind of yet-to-be-invented digital telepathy, “students, what is distinctive about the made-for-film, reading material of these generations that sets them apart from those who came before?”
Top Comments
I'm confused, was it all children or girls only? I can't see many boys being interested in Jane Eyre, I'd rather watch TV too if your choices were thrown at me as a young teenager. I can imagine getting absolutely shit stirred by my mates if I was busted reading pride and prejudice.
I'd much rather read stuff with sex and fighting and killing. I still do.
I'm proud to say my daughter is a complete bookworm - my biggest problem is her reading at night when she should be asleep!
Re the embarrassment factor, from a very young age I've told her that many kids don't think being smart and doing well at school is cool, but never to give into peer pressure and pretend to be dumber than she is or not try hard at school. I've explained to her that she needs to think long term about her future. It is not worth sacrificing your future for a few years of popularity at school.
My message must be getting through to my daughter. She came home the other day saying that the popular kids in her class had been calling her a nerd. She looked at me with a smile and said "I don't really care what they think. I'm know going to be successful when I'm grown up." I was talking to her teacher recently, and she said my daughter knows her own mind and doesn't follow her peers like a sheep. I made me so proud.