Think You Know What, Where, and How Millennials Read? Rethink Assumptions
When I turned eighteen, I had the realization that technically being an adult meant nothing to me and I might as well have remained seventeen. I didn’t up and toss my phone out or look in disgust at my Kindle. I still checked Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr during my morning ritual. Netflix still played in the background as I got ready for school. I was informed that, though I am technically an adult, I’m not really an “adult.”
Honestly, I hadn’t expected anything different. I was still a millennial, my phone still attached to my hand and my laptop not far behind. I was still the same kid who loved comics and action movies, reading every book I could get my hands on and writing first chapters that never seem to turn into novels. No, I hadn’t expected to turn into a mature woman overnight, but hey, stranger things, right?
My news mainly comes from social media. I’m a big believer that time is money and wasting time is not an option. I need my information fast and I need it twenty seconds ago. I don’t have time to be uneducated and I don’t have time for someone to ask me if I’ve heard about something before explaining it to me. After eighteen years of absorbing the world around me, I am ready to participate in this world, participate in politics, in the working world, in adult life.
Being an adult means different things to different people. It used to mean you turned eighteen and that was it, you were an adult. But with millennials, that doesn’t seem to be the case. It seems to be based on our maturity, which older generations also get to decide.
I get most of my news from social networks, which is deemed less mature than a newspaper. I watch television on my computer, my phone, my tablet, anything with a screen, but it’s not quite as good as watching it in the living room with family I guess. My Kindle isn’t a “real book.”
The way I consume media is deemed childish and immature, simply because it is different than how it used to be done. What I think is really immature is stubbornly refusing to evolve with the times, to remain behind for fear of being “childish.”
Yes, I Read Actual Books
I don’t know where the misconception that millennials don’t read sprouted from. Young adult has become one of the most popular genres in the bookstores. Everybody who thinks they can write is typing up a YA novel and everybody who can read is picking them off the shelves. Whenever I go to a bookstore, the area most heavily populated (besides the cafe, of course) is the YA section.
My bookshelves are so packed that I have had to stack books around my room. And those are just books I’ve bought since August, when I moved in. My other books, which fill my shelves about three times over, are still packed away.
I have several reading apps on my phone, a Kindle, and books on my computer, in addition to my hard copies. Beyond that, I always have a book I’m supposed to be reading for school. You can’t tell me I don’t read. I have an entire arsenal of literature at my disposal to prove you wrong. People call me different because I read. Lots of teenagers read! Did people seriously think I was the only teenager in the world who read on a regular basis?
You See Only a Snapshot
I think the problem lies within the mask that people put over millennials. They look at a teenager on their phone and only see the teen in that moment. Now, the teen could be on Instagram or reading an online article about the economy, but either way, that is a snapshot of their life. A millisecond that cannot account for their everyday activities. Maybe they’re on Twitter right now, but they have a new book in their bag. Or maybe they’re reading that article and they plan on watching TV when they get home to relax. Either way, reading is present in most of our lives, in some way or another. Is is really a crime that we consume our words differently? What is so threatening about the Kindle? And for the record, we’re not averse to digital books, but a lot of us prefer the hard copies too.
I’ve listed a lot of problems without a lot of solutions. A lot of issues with the intergenerational interaction have been pointed out and discussed without a lot of resolution. My main point in all of this is actually a request. Don’t look down on millennials the way so many people do. Don’t see us the way the masses do and instead, judge for yourself with each and every millennial you come across what type of person they are. Don’t let your gaze skip over the millennial reading in the corner to the one on their phone. And don’t assume the one on their phone isn’t doing something worthwhile. Remember, it’s all about perspective. Give millennials a chance to prove themselves; they might surprise you. And hey, if you want to get to know a millennial better, ask them what they like to read.
Hannah Hohman is an editorial assistant at Foreword Reviews.
Hannah Hohman
