Reading books is increasingly becoming outdated habit as people are stopping reading them as much as before. In my opinion, we see this trend as people opt to use AI for quicker research and social media for instant gratification instead of reading sessions. However, I believe the solution to this is raising the social awareness of illiteracy and promoting reading in public.
Humans seek instant results and satisfaction more than before, especially with tools such as AI or social media. Instead of long one-to-two hour reading session just to find the useful bit of information, we can now ask a chatbot to provide us with instant outcome of what we looked for, simplifying the research process. Similarly, reading was a source of not only research but also entertainment of the story; however, now with the rise of social media, we can achieve the same level of joy in just under a few seconds by endlessly scrolling. This outcome-driven mindset forces people to seek speed of quality, therefore choosing faster ways than reading books.
To fix this, governments may raise the social awareness of illiteracy that this trend brings and promote reading by handing out free books or lowering their prices. Many people are not cognizant of their compromised attention spans by over-reliance on AI tools and social media, and this should be delivered to public to address the issue through mass media, while illustrating the benefits of reading. Thus, more individuals will opt for reading after seeing the negative effects of neglecting books. Another solution is making books more affordable to public or distributing old unused books in the cities. If more and more people see that novels are sold for only 2 dollars instead of 10, they would buy it frequently.
In conclusion, reading is the field that is being affected the most by social media and AI usage; nonetheless, it can be brought back to its old popularity with better promotion and awareness.