Reading has gone through a long and exhausting evolution. It has gone from some people not being able to read, to reading being for a narrow demographic, and now, even with all of our new technologies and ways of accessing literature, less and less people want to read. There are many interesting and exciting books that suit an array of people that simply haven’t been discovered yet.

Books can contain all sorts of important knowledge that people could benefit from in their day to day lives. By people reading less, students are missing out on not only the knowledge books possess, but also the entertainment that literature can provide.

 “I feel that this day and age teens lose the opportunity to learn and expand their imagination,” English teacher Meghann Crane said.

Books have evolved in order to fit the needs and busy lives of their readers. Though, no matter how much they change, the new generations of readers have lessened their interest in the stories and adventures that are in between the cover.

As people find more and more ways to entertain themselves, we lose the information that past generations have left behind that have led us to get to the point where we are. Though easily summarized by Google, people lose the depth and meaning in the work when it’s just laid out in front of them, never letting the reader have their own thoughts and opinions.

“The time they’re [spending] reading Twitter, they’re reading novels online, they’re reading publications, they’re reading entertainment sites,” McCaleb said. “So maybe the quantity of reading has gone , but I still think students are reading it’s just the type of materials. It’s different, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a complete lack, but I agree it’s been lessened.”

One thing we need to address is that, yes, there are some who still read. We need to allow  more people to educate themselves with the resources that have been provided to them that make important information accessible to them whenever they feel like. If this is the new way to get information, then we need to make it more informative.

“So I feel like having more readers makes people more critical thinkers,” McCaleb said. “They’re more able to critically think and the more critical thinkers that we have, the more opportunities for solutions to problems we can come up with.”

There are serious problems in the world that this generation must grow up to eventually solve. Though there is nothing wrong with having fun along the way, using the informative resources that are available to people to help strengthen their minds maybe the key to a healthy and happy society.

 “So it’s not just about can you read material and think critically,” McCaleb said. “Come up with solutions for problems since we’re all coming to each other from different backgrounds.”