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Why can’t we read anymore?

- By Khyati Sajwal

Most nights, Kritika, 28, climbs into her bed with a book — sometimes a paperback and sometimes her Kindle. And she starts reading. Reading. Read. Ing. One word after the next. A sentence. Two sentences.

Maybe three. And then... she needs just a little something else. Something to tide her over. Something to scratch that little itch at the back of her mind — just a quick look at email on her iPhone; to write, and start browsing through her Instagram. She goes to Namita Dubey’s Instagram handle to look for some new book recommendations. Likes, forwards, and sometimes leaves a comment. Checks her email again, just to be sure. Then she reads another sentence.

That's four sentences. She says to herself, “It takes a long time to read a book at the rate of four sentences per day. And it’s exhausting.”

She feels bad after she says this, as during her teenage years she was the same girl who used to finish a whole book on a Saturday night. Then she eventually falls asleep halfway through reading sentence number five.

Kritika is a human, and like every human being, she comes under the Homo sapiens species. Homo sapiens means the Wise Man — Homo means Human, and sapiens means wise or intelligent. We can also define a Homo sapien as a Thinking Man. But is our generation fitted into the correct species?

That’s a question now. Human beings have stopped thinking. The idea of critical thinking and talking has completely vanished, leaving the brain as a vestigial organ.

And the absence of a reading habit does play a huge role in this. Let’s see how.

We have observed a decline in reading comprehension across multiple generations. We engage in reading less, remember less of what we read, and find it challenging to participate in critical analysis. If this trend persists, we jeopardise the fundamental pillars of our society.