Synopsis on Reader Surveys

For the reader surveys I conducted, I chose a 20-year-old undergraduate student, a 25-year-old graduate student, a 29-year-old medical professional, and a 34-year-old engineering professional. While I wanted a variety of ages, I also wanted to focus solely on those considered to be from Generation Y because new-age reading habits are more apparent in that age group. 

While the ages of the respondents cover a range of about 15 years, one of the first things I noticed is that there isn’t much difference among the four of them. While each of them consider themselves to be a person who enjoys reading, none of them have read a book from cover-to-cover within the past year. When they do find a book in which they’re interested, they will usually only read for an hour or two at a time. With the exception of the graduate student, it seems that the majority of the books they keep in their homes aren’t actually literary. 

On the other hand, each respondent spends at least an hour on social media each day; the medical professional said she spends so much time on social media, she “can’t even quantify it.” Each of them spend at least four hours total on their cell phones each day, but two of the respondents couldn’t give an actual amount of time – they simply said their cell phone usage was “too much”.

All of them work between 6 and 8 hours each day and most work-related reading is either email or research. Outside of work, the undergraduate student says she spends about 85% of her study-time reading, while the graduate student says she only reads while studying when it is absolutely necessary. All of these people use the internet between 2 and 6 hours each day and, while much of it is for work-related reasons, they also will use the internet for entertainment.

The inability to disconnect from technology is also a common factor among these four. The only time any of them are able to completely go off the grid is either when they are working at a place where cell phones and internet are not allowed, or while they are sleeping. Three out of the four repeatedly state knowing they spend too much time connected to technology (the oldest of the four is the only one who never made a comment like that).

When asked to complete the sentence, “Reading is…,” a few of them made simple statements like, “reading is important,” and “reading is imperative.” One said reading is something she enjoyed and another agreed it was enjoyable, but only with the “right” book. 

Favorite books named include The Dark Tower series, The Emperor of All Maladies: The Biography of Cancer, and The Staircase by Ann Rinaldi. The graduate student didn’t name anything specific and said her favorite book was “something humorous” to which she could relate. All of the interviewees agreed that literary refers to pretty much anything written, but two of them felt as though the word literary should be used for important or valuable works. Two of the respondents seemed to enjoy poetry, while the engineering professional and graduate student are not fans. 

While all of them claim to enjoy reading, none of them really do. They instead prefer to spend their free time on social media or their phones, so much so that the only time spent away from these technological mediums is when they’re sleeping. This aversion to time spent reading anything of worth seems to be a sign of the changing times – Generation Y wants the instant gratification that reading a novel from cover-to-cover just can’t seem to satisfy.