For
this assignment, I interviewed two people of each gender who varied in age,
areas of study, and occupation to get a gage of their reading and social media
habits. For the most part, their answers were rather similar with the exception
of those that required specific information such as his or her favorite book.
But overall based off my findings, I’ve found that people today spend most of
their time doing something that is media technology related rather for business
or for leisure as opposed to reading or something “unconnected.”
Out
of the four people I interviewed, only one person described himself as someone
who generally likes to read while two people described themselves as
non-readers, and one stating that it all truly depended on what she was reading
at the time. In fact, the amount of time spent reading a book also depended on
what was being read by the readers, meaning most of them felt like they could
spend as little as thirty minutes to a whole day reading depending on how
interesting the material was. But on average, when reading for pleasure, they
could read for about 2-3 hours before stopping. In terms of what the readers
enjoyed reading varied and reflected the areas of study and or occupations,
including online articles, fashion magazines, espionage novels, World War II
related books. But it was also clear that the readers didn’t enjoy reading
things that qualified as literature, judging by the lack of literature books in
their collections, which ranged from none to no more than 10. The readers, with
the exception of one, also didn’t enjoy reading poetry, describing the process
of reading poetry as something similar to “stabbing myself in the eyes,” and “a
bad hernia.” However, when it comes to reading for work or school, the readers
generally spent most if not all of their work/study time reading.
In
terms of the readers’ involvement with social media, it is evident that the
readers valued and spent more time online or “connected” than they did reading.
The readers spent on average about seven hours a day on the Internet, with a
big percentage of that time dedicated to time spent on social media. And when
asked how much time did they spend “unconnected” to media technologies, three
out of the four interviewees responded when I’m asleep, so roughly 8 hours.
Even when it comes down to what their favorite forms of relaxation and
entertainment, three out of the four people had the same answers: exercising
and streaming video via Netflix.
So
given my findings, I think a majority of people in this generation value social
media technologies more so than reading particularly when it comes to leisurely
activities. This might be because we more so than not associate reading with
work or studying, given that we spend most of our study and work time reading
if not all of our time based off my results. But even though we spend more time
using social media technologies, we still believe that reading is
“stimulating,” “educational,” and “essential.” We may not value reading the
same way we do social media these days but we can still recognize its
importance.
I had similar findings in my reader interviews. I think that it is interesting that you pointed out that our generation may value social media more than reading, but they still understand that importance of reading and books. From my experience, the view on the value of reading has drastically decreased. Very few of my friends read for pleasure, most barely read for class. It seems as though college has become a game: how can I read the least amount of page, yet still retain the information I need for the test? Sparknotes made this possible for English classes. I’m not going to lie; I used Sparknotes a few times in high school instead of reading an entre novel. With other homework , such as math, history and business, that can’t be as easily found, English classes often take the hit in terms of effort. It is so easy to find summaries of content and analyses of theme, motif and symbolism that students sometimes question the point of reading the novel at all.
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