What Is the Value of Books in a Ubiquitous Social Media World

Why we picked it

I was reading a recent assessment on one of the feeds I get that comments on cultural and social matters that speaks to the impact of social media on reading. This person noted that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok encourage us to consume short posts, fragmented and superficial videos, and brief snippets of information. Consequently, they clutter our digital space, diminishing our attention span and discouraging us from engaging with higher literature. This makes it increasingly difficult to focus on and tedious to read longer texts. Furthermore, it's much easier to find other people's thoughts about a book and then adopt them as your own, rather than forming independent opinions. Other research notes that the decline of book reading is a cultural and cognitive shift driven by digital distractions, shrinking attention spans, and changing entertainment habits. While this trend raises concerns about deep literacy and critical thinking, it also reflects a natural evolution i