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There has been a 20% decrease in the amount of time a person spends on reading. Reading in the U.S. has gone down immensely and many people have failed to recognize the benefits that reading can have in all aspects of life. It has been proven through immense data that an avid reader has more benefits than a nonreader and one of the main reasons behind the such difference is reading. There are a lot of reasons why people don’t read anymore and one of the biggest reasons is social media. Social media has taken over people’s lives and it has also been a hindrance to people spending time reading. Statistics have shown that many students are using social media while reading, 58% of middle schoolers and high schoolers use some type of social media while reading. This shows that social media has taken over the priority list of a teenager over books . Teenagers have become so involved in what is happening on social media that it has been a struggle to put the screen down and pick a book up. Most parents are role models for their kids and in recent years it has been shown that parents have stopped reading bedtime stories to their kids and parents have stopped reading for pleasure as well and kids are following in their footsteps. There are many Physiological, social, and legal benefits to reading.
Psychological benefits of reading include brain development and mental health. Reading has a huge effect on developing a child’s brain into an adult’s. When a child starts reading books, it helps them develop a wide variety of vocabulary. This would help the child in the future because having a wide variety of vocabulary would help in having good communication skills which would certainly help in job interviews. “Interestingly, Reading fiction was found to improve the reader’s ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes and flex the imagination in a way that is similar to the visualization of a muscle memory in sports”(Bergland). This further explains that reading is an exercise for the brain. The ability to put yourself into another person’s shoes enhances the theory of mind. Reading also helps prevent diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia. “These are diseases that destroy neurons and it disrupts communication with neurons, leading to cell death”(national institute on aging). These diseases also affect memory, language, reasoning, and social behavior. Reading can preserve mental ability and improve memory. Memory loss and decreased social intelligence are some of the effects that occur when someone develops Alzheimer's and Dementia. Many studies have shown that staying mentally stimulated helps prevent the development of these diseases in the brain. One may be contributing to the decline of their brain by not challenging it so one can prevent Alzheimer's and Dementia by reading and challenging their brain.
Social benefits of reading include increased emotional intelligence and overall happiness in life. Understanding a character’s feelings, and emotions and why the character made certain decisions in life helps many people connect with other individuals and that would lead to increased emotional intelligence. This has been proven by “An article in the Scientific American, researchers at the new school in New York City ‘found evidence that literary fiction improves a reader’s capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling’”(Priske). The impact of reading on an individual’s emotional intelligence has been proven by many studies and this shows that reading has benefits on readers' emotional intelligence and the ability to understand someone else’s feelings. Reading helps an individual to be happy overall and that comes with having good sleep and being less stressed. Reading is a workout for the brain and it helps keep the brain active. “Studies have shown that reading can help you sleep better “(Ragsdale). This shows that it has been proven through many studies that reading can help someone fall asleep. “Scientists believe that reading is the best way to relax because immersing yourself into another world takes your mind off of your current problems better than other coping mechanisms, like listening to music or drinking a cup of tea”(Levine). This data by scientists further prove the point that reading helps an individual to sleep well which leads them to be happy and present in life.
Legal benefits of reading include being a good citizen and there are fewer chances of incarceration. Every citizen has civic responsibility and one must and should fulfill this responsibility. “Civic responsibility is defined as the ‘responsibility of a citizen’ stated by dictionary.com, it is also comprised of actions and attitudes associated with democratic governance and social participation”(learningtogive.org). The biggest responsibility of a citizen is to vote. There are data and studies that have proven the fact that younger Americans vote less than older Americans. “During the 2014 midterm elections two years earlier, the youth-voter turnout rate was 20 percent, the lowest ever recorded in history, according to an analysis of census data”(Wong). This proves that as years are passing many young adults are not turning up to vote which shows that they are not fulfilling their civic responsibility. “These troubling voting rates follow decades of declining civics education”(Wong). This shows that reading, illiteracy, or illiteracy leads to a decrease in voting rates. “A newly released survey by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation illustrates the sorry state of civics education today: Just one in three Americans would pass the U.S. citizenship test”(Wong). This survey further proves the point that many Americans who are not reading or have civic education would fail the citizenship test which many immigrants can pass. Another legal benefit of reading is fewer chances of incarceration . . “85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally low literate”(The relationship between incarceration and low literacy skill). This data proves the point that having low literacy skills would lead to being incarcerated and reading and education do play a part in the possibility of being incarcerated.
It has been proven that reading benefits an individuals’ brain development, which leads them to be overall happy and that helps them to be a good citizen. Even though reading has so many benefits, many people, mostly teenagers, don’t read. There are a few ways to encourage people to start reading.
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