Emily Sked isn’t reading. But the first-year radiography student doesn’t dislike reading. In fact, she misses having time to do it.
“I usually always want to read, but actually getting myself to do it when I’ve been busy is a different story,” she says.
short-form versus long-form content. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION | Dylaney Talkpa
Balancing classes and work leaves her little energy for casual reading at the end of a long day. College life is a central factor in this lack of energy.
“My classes do get very draining fast,” she says, “Throughout the semester, I am constantly busy with always studying, reading material, and preparing for exams, leaving me with no extra energy to read anything more, even just for fun.”
According to a VOICE survey of 30 MCCC students, 80% of students read for less than two hours per week. Responses suggest competing priorities, rather than a lack of interest, may be limiting students’ reading time.
Reading habits are not disappearing entirely, but they are shifting, increasingly moving into digital spaces.
From the faculty perspective, the shift is noticeable. Philosophy professor Ken Howarth says, “It does seem like…the breadth and the depth of the shared basis of what people have read in common tends to be a shrinking sort of thing.”
In philosophy, a discipline built on reading and argumentation, the change carries weight.
Howarth notes pressure to reframe readings and assign shorter texts rather than dense primary sources.
“I’m also more concerned about something like actual student success, defined in terms of what they learn and what they take away from the readings, not just what grades they’re able to get,” he says.
But even if reading in class feels obligatory, the community finds ways to encourage reading.
The Society of Unusual Literature (SOUL) club at MCCC attempts to make reading communal and creative. The club has weekly discussions of readings, and participants are encouraged to write something on the same theme.
Jennifer Appell, Teen Services Librarian at Princeton Public Library, says reading habits have evolved.
“I noticed a decrease in circulation post-COVID, but book sales are soaring, so it’s not that people are reading less. I think they’re reading differently.”
According to Appell, BookTok has helped bring people into the library.
BookTok, a literary community on TikTok, is a space where users post short videos reviewing, recommending and reacting to books.
Appell said, “Those books are constantly checked out because people are talking about them with their friends, they’re seeing them online.”
According to the Social Network Analysis and Mining Journal, the trend has become influential enough to drive national sales, revive older titles and shape bestseller lists.
Sked says, “These platforms increase my interest in books as it is easier to get exposure to new books I might not have found on my own.” She continues, “It can be overwhelming sometimes going to a bookstore and not knowing where to start, but things like BookTok have helped me to find specific books I’d like to read and navigate what genres I’m most interested in.”
But besides being a space where people can share and talk about books they have read, getting recommendations from social media has its obstacles.
Sked says,“Social media both competes with reading and helps promote it. It’s easy to get lost in scrolling on social media as it gives you that quick dopamine hit.”
Mehak Sangwan, a Liberal Arts major and vice president of the SOUL club, points out the negative side of this digital shift. She believes that short-form content has reshaped how students engage with long-form text.
“We’re so used to short-form hooks and short-form content, it’s very hard to then have people have attentiveness in long form content, whether they have been reading or films, movies, series, because you don’t have that constant hook that you’re used to in the instant gratification,” Sangwan says.
She also points to how this is affecting classrooms and course designs. In some cases, she says, reading isn’t even assigned.
Sangwan adds,“I’ve had classes which were supposed to be reading-heavy, but we only had McGraw-Hill quizzes, which you can do without reading.” Sangwan then adds, “I’ve had history classes where they don’t give assigned readings. And [I’m like], the point of history is to read primary sources, [secondary] resources, analyze them. And if I’m not doing that, I don’t know what I’m learning from this class.”
According to Sked, assigned readings do not help her go back to the habit of reading. She says, “Assigned reading becomes a chore, whereas reading for fun is more engaging because I get to pick and choose what I read and when, how long, [and] how much.”
Appell suggests flexibility for those who want to read but feel like they don’t have time. She says, “Oh my gosh, audiobooks. I am such a huge advocate for this…You can multitask while reading books, graphic novels and manga count as reading.”
Sangwan pushes back the narrative that reading habits are disappearing, saying, “The way we might read has changed. What you read might have changed. Maybe how much a person reads has changed, but there’s no part of the world where you can go without reading.”
