Why reading feels so hard now…

We used to read books, like really used to read books. From our childhood we’ve been reading books in school, at home & in front of our relatives to make our parents feel proud. Reading books has been an integral part of our life. It can be any book, novel, fiction, storybook, educational or school book.

But as we’ve grown up & the world has been shifted to a digital era, the essence of reading books is somewhere faded. Simply because we don’t find reading books as easy as before. There are lots of distractions & more cool things to do in our life than reading a book….

So what went wrong?

See basically I think what went wrong is we got introduced to too much things at a moment. From digital devices to having a very happening social life, being there at the top became a kind of pressure.

And reading is very different from these new things.

You can say reading is the opposite to all this. Reading needs peace, loneliness (not the gen z kind of loneliness thou) & the sense of quietness. Because reading takes you through a whole new world of fictions or history of ideas or events, where you need to be lost to feel it.

The calamity of concentration

Reading needs concentration & we have now calamity of it !

Our attention span is reduced due to short content consumption which makes it hard to concentrate on a thing for a longer period of time. I know you can relate when I say, before we used to sit in one place doing one thing for a longer period than we can do it today.

Our brain is used to fast, short span things, which also force us to do the same to ourselves. We need everything quick & instantly changing nowadays!

Skimming culture is getting the buzz

Skimming is the new normal!

Skimming culture is eroding our ability for critical thinking. And we are thinking it is normal. We think that we are getting a lot of information in a short time by consuming short content. But in reality we are losing the sense of deep understanding & factual content.

In the skimming culture, we believe what we are watching in those 30–60 secs, we are not deeply understanding the topics, absorbing the true meaning behind it to make informed decisions.

Boredom is not a thing anymore (it’s not totally true…..)

Our society believes that boredom is not a thing in this generation, as we are surrounded by so much at the moment.

But you can feel when you’re consuming this much digital screentime, your eyes start feeling glazing & brain numbing. You just consume things for the sake of doing it. There is no true sense of learning or enjoyment behind it.

The biggest problem here…..

Look, I’m 22 & I believe the biggest problem is that we are uncomfortable being alone with our own mind.

The biggest problem is not that we don’t read anymore.

Earlier, reading was natural because silence was normal. Today, silence feels awkward.

The moment things slow down, we reach for our phones not because we want to but because we don’t know what to do with that emptiness.

Digital platforms didn’t just change our habits, they changed our baseline stimulation level. Our brain is constantly fed with opinions, updates & noise.

So when we open a book it feels unnatural as it demands slowness, patience and presence. And the scariest part?

We’ve started confusing constant consumption with learning and busyness.

Reading exposes that illusion. Because when you read, there’s no instant reward, no validation, no algorithm pushing the next thing.

It’s just you and the page.

And that’s exactly why it feels hard now.

Ok, but what is the cure to this

The cure is not deleting Instagram, throwing your phone away or suddenly becoming a monk who reads 50 books a year.

That mindset itself is part of the problem.

Because it treats the phone as the enemy when in reality, the problem is how our brain has been trained.

You don’t fix this by extreme actions. You can fix it by gentle rewiring.

Our brain works on ritual

Our brain doesn’t respond to motivation. It responds to patterns.

Whatever you repeat daily such as scrolling, checking notifications, jumping between apps automatically becomes your habit.

Reading disappeared not because we stopped loving it but because it stopped being part of our daily ritual. Now those daily rituals are filled with screens.

So the solution isn’t “read more”.

The solution is to give reading a predictable place in your day.

Some tips that has helped me & can help me too…

1. Lower the bar. A lot.

Don’t start with the aim to finish books. Just aim to open the book daily.

2. Read when your brain is already tired.

Reading works best at times when scrolling feels empty like before sleep, during travel or right after a long day.

3. One book at a time.

Multiple books might sound smart but they distribute our focus. Stick to one book until your reading rhythm returns.

4. Don’t fight distractions

You’ll reread lines. You’ll feel the urge to check your phone. That doesn’t mean you’re failing, it means you’re in the process of rebuilding.

5. Read what feels easy first.

Not every book has to be intellectual or heavy. Novels, short essays, stories they all count. The goal is to enjoy staying with one thought.

6. Stop using reading as a productivity tool.

You don’t need to highlight everything or extract lessons. Sometimes reading is just about slowing down and that’s enough.

The real win

The real win is not becoming a “reader”. The real win is getting the ability back to still, focus on one thing & be comfortable with silence.

If you stayed till the end, I hope you found a little focus here and maybe enjoyed reading this too. See ya!