Back to Basics

It was three days into winter break and I could already feel my brain beginning to rot away one episode of Gossip Girl at a time. I knew it was time for a change. It was time that I made something more for myself than a Netflix queue, time that I stepped out from the computer screen and explored the world around me. So I turned to my bookshelf.

By the end of winter break I had read four new books: 13 Reasons Why, The Silver Star, We Were Liars and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you the last time I had read even one book purely for pleasure. These books weren’t assigned to me, they weren’t written on a suggested list by a teacher, they were my choices. And I was proud.

The New Year came and I promised myself this would not just be another phase, this was going to become a habit. I was going to spend less time on things that were never going to reward me, and more time on things that would: reading.

Every Christmas my sister and I open a book that my mom has carefully selected for us. And every Christmas it happens the same way. My mom hands us the wrapped packages, and we immediately recognize what the shape of the box means: it’s the treasured book my mom has decided I can’t go without reading. We open them, plaster on an excited smile and remain briefly interested in the pages of our newest novels. Although they’ve never been the most exciting Christmas presents, those books became something that taught me that reading is the most valuable resource I have.

I didn’t used to think twice about those books. Sadly, most of them probably served as a nice decoration on my bookshelf. But my parents didn’t give up. They kept handing me books, they kept dropping the, “reading makes you smarter” and finally I thought maybe they were right.

In 2007, the average person spent two and a half hours a day on the Internet and only seven minutes a day reading, according to boston.com. Every year, the amount of time spent on the Internet is constantly
increasing, leaving even less time for reading.

I began to wonder if we are living in a world where one day people will no longer continue to read classic works. A world where the company of our computer screen surpasses the company of a good book.  A world where technology is always improving, but intelligence is declining.

I love that I don’t remember days without the Internet, but sometimes I have to remember that technology isn’t everything. Social media isn’t what I should value, nor should I prioritize Netflix over everything else. I should make time to put everything down and step away into a good book. Even if it is a book assigned to me by a teacher.

Technology sure isn’t helping students read more, but high school reading isn’t helping them either. Students see a novel in their English class as something that’s required of them. Seeing it as something to check of their to do list only causes them to veer the opposite direction. That’s the way it’s been built up in their heads, and reading is no exception to this.

Rather than looking at an assigned reading list as a requirement or forced activity, students should embrace the chance to break away from the typical worksheet or note packet. Students need to look past the daily chapters they’re assigned to, stop counting how many more pages they have to go until they’re done and just take the time to absorb the book.

It finally hit me after all those years that the Christmas morning books weren’t just an after thought. They were a lesson my mom was silently teaching me. She was, in her best non-nagging way, hinting that it wasn’t the newest iPhone that was going to take me far, but the knowledge in all those books, a lesson I’m eternally grateful I learned.

It’s a shame that most people won’t make it through this article. They’ll get distracted; someone will Snapchat them, someone will text them, someone will like their Instagram. But I challenge you to keep reading, to be the generation that reads more than seven minutes a day. Put your phone away, turn off the TV and just read. I promise it will pay off in the end.