Less Scrolling, More Reading

Why (and How) to Help Your Twentysomething Make the Switch

When my son was young, he used to run around at the playground–or the store or the house—because it was fun and easy to do. Then, in middle and high school, he played team sports because it was fun and easy to do. Now he’s in college, and going to the gym seems boring and lonely, so he rarely finds the time. 

Something similar has happened with reading. When this same son was little, he read in the morning before he went to school and we read together as a family at night. Reading in school was fun for a while too, but then it became something he was mostly required to do. Now at age 20, my kid who used to read hundreds of pages a day, reads mostly news and snippets on his phone.

And it’s not just my 20-year-old. 

Around the world, young adults are struggling with healthy habits like reading and exercise. Things that were once fun and easy now feel like a bore and a chore. So, the twentysomething brain finds other things to do that feel fun and easy and that require little effort: most commonly, scrolling on their phones.