Yuva Bharati Magazine - February 2020

In this issue

A few months before I was addressing a group of college students in a soft skills development training centre in Coimbatore. Students were mainly from Coimbatore and the nearby districts. I asked them about their favourite author and book. Their reply was a jolt to me. I was shocked to know that none of them have any interest in reading. They said that their reading is confined to their academic books. Apart from that they are reading only what they get in WhatsApp and Facebook as forwards and shared contents. What was more appalling was none of them was aware of any of the recent political happenings in our country. I have reasons to believe that this is a phenomenon which is prevalent not just in one metro or rural area but throughout our country. The way trolls and memes are spread without knowing the background of the issues proves that our younger generation seldom cares for the veracity of messages which they share and spread. This is due to the lack of reading habit which makes them a puerile and crackbrained lot, who will swallow whatever information that is dished out. There are exceptions, but they are small in number and hence invisible.