4mo ago

Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis?

www.vox.com

Summary

Concerns about American men reading less fiction have sparked cultural debates linking the trend to toxic masculinity and political shifts, such as increased support for Donald Trump.

Men read fewer books and less fiction than women, but the gap is modest. 73% of men and 78% of women read books annually, with fiction readership differing by 10-17%.

The exaggerated 80/20 gender fiction market split lacks verified sources.

Critics argue the "crisis" reflects fears about male disengagement, yet male authors still dominate bestseller lists and literary awards, complicating the narrative.

Books @lemmy.ml

psychothumbs @lemmy.world

4mo ago

Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis?

www.vox.com /culture/392971/men-reading-fiction-statistics-fact-checked

43 comments

I'm super suspicious of the 70%+ stats for annual readership, I know a lot of people that don't read books at all.
Also, there's a massive difference between someone who reads a single book they bought at the airport to pass the time on a flight and someone who actually reads.
- Same. Especially in the US I suspect a good chunk of that is people who claim to read the bible and are counting that as "I read a book this year".
- There's going to be a lot of bias when you try to go off of people you know
  Personally, I'm pretty hard-pressed to think of anyone in my circles who doesn't read at least a couple books a year.
  And not everyone who reads necessarily does it when you're around and may not talk about the reading they do for any number of reasons like they're just not interested in talking about books, are embarrassed by the books they read, etc.
  
  I don't have time to read, these games are not going to play themselves
- Yeah I think it would be more telling to look at the average number per year and a monthly spread.
- Same, I'm skeptical, but I fully believe that that many people say they read. Nobody wants to admit on the record that they don't read.

Not a single mention of the word game or gaming in that article. It’s my hypothesis that video games have largely supplanted fiction reading for boys and men over the past several decades. Men do read some science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction books but not general fiction or erotic fiction. Those latter categories are heavily targeted at women (eg. any of Elena Ferrante’s books or smash hits like Fifty Shades of Grey).
There’s nothing here to suggest that toxic masculinity or the rise of Trumpism or the alt-right have anything to do with it.
I (as a 40yo man) stopped reading for the most part many years ago. And it’s not for a lack of trying! I have purchased many books (fiction and nonfiction) but I struggle to bring myself to read them. I just don’t have the attention span and it’s really frustrating. I actually really want to read these books!
- The reality is, that most reading is just as mindless entertainment as soap operas or tiktok doomscrolling.
  All those crime, romance and drama novels that fill book shelves all over the (western?) world are essentially garbage. It's just that reading has a higher social prestige than TV or gaming.
  
  Penny Dreadfuls and Pulp Magazines are examples of low quality fiction. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_dreadful
  For me at least, reading generally takes more effort for me than just doom scrolling, where I honestly just look at the pictures and captions.
  
  I strongly disagree, reading any kind of book requires sustaining attention over long periods of time. It doesn't matter if it's 50 Shades or Ulysses, you don't get a dopamine rush from reading a book for 30 seconds like you do with Internet and social media. It's not the same at all and it's not just about prestige. I'd argue that the prestige comes from the fact tha reading books requires more effort and dedication
- Also depending on the game it may include an impressive amount of reading. I once got an A in english for compiling all of the Mass Effect codex entries from the in universe perspective of half crazed author og them. Also I play CRPGs which means I read a lot.
  
  Yeah I do tons of reading in the games I play! I’ve been playing Caves of Qud and there is a gargantuan amount of reading in that game. A lot of it is AI slop, admittedly, but its text to wade through nevertheless!
- I used to sell books at Borders (so far before MAGA crap) and you are 100% correct. Most men were reading books as well, but they really didn't gravitate to Ann Rice's vampire series, Twilight, or even most mystery books. Is was Sci Fi, fantasy, history, general knowledge sort of stuff.
  The sheer volume of women buying romance novels was staggering, and I think speaks more to porn habits than anything. These women kept the store alive long enough for corporate to fuck up and bankrupt themselves.
  Now that I think about it, there was a whole row of JUST Star Wars books. But because Disney erased so much of the Expanded Universe canon that they wrote, they all faded away. I don't even have one in my local Barnes and Noble. Not even a single novel, from what I saw. Everyone totally lost interest and Disney doesn't care to rekindle that spark.
- Hey, I don't know if it will make a difference for you, but some time ago I had to take a really long trip where I had spotty internet at best, and I got back into reading in that trip because I was really bored. I rediscovered my drive when I went long enough without any alternatives to reading, forcing boredom on myself.
  Maybe something like this will help you also?
  
  That’s a great idea! I need to do that at some point! For a long time I’ve wanted to hike the pacific crest trail. Maybe I’ll bring books along for that! Thanks!

More than half the country can't read at a sixth grade reading level, they read below that.
I think we should be far more worried about basic literacy in general.
If you can't fucking read, you don't usually do a whole lot of it.
- part of that is reading is a skill. You don't use it, you lose it.

I don't read books but I am constantly reading things all day. Mostly technical documentation and stuff like that. Should I be worried about myself? Lol reading books makes me fall asleep.
Also what about audio book people? Are they not getting any benefits because they didn't read it from the book themselves? Does the value come from reading or knowing the information? I would think the information is the valuable part regardless of how it got into your brain but if that's the case why would this matter at all even if people moved on to new ways to consume information?
- Are they not getting any benefits because they didn’t read it from the book themselves?
  It engages different parts of your brain, so yes. Listening to an audiobook or YouTube video is not the same as reading.
  But there's lots of other differences too
  
  While I don't disagree that it engages different parts of the brain, reading audio books is still beneficial, and no studies have shown a demonstrable difference in a person's comprehensive ability using physical vs audiobooks. In fact, some groups like the National Literacy Trust have shown that audiobooks can be beneficial for engagement in education and if used properly, beneficial to the learning process in general. Humans (and our precursors) spent millennia conveying stories, culture and history entirely through verbal storytelling. As a species we have spent more time listening to stories and absorbing them that way than physically reading them.
  While there is certainly a difference between reading and listening to books, I absolutely would not criticize anyone who chooses to pick up an audiobook vs not consuming books at all. Seeing words spelled out and the punctuation within the writing is helpful, especially for those learning to read or learning the language. But audiobooks are still books and as far as I'm concerned you "read" the book if you listened to the audio in full.

I used to love to read, just don't really have the drive to do that anymore over playing a game, fucking with my webserver or just watching something online.
I don't think I have actually read a book in probably 8 years :/
Though I consider myself a lefty, and have since I actually started paying attention to politics
- What kinda content do you consume? I'm talking about genre - what games do you like, what do you watch online? I might be able to recommend a book if it's an interest I share.
- All that was exactly me until Christmas year before last when my wife bought me an ereader. I carry it with me everywhere and read so much more because of it.
  You'd be surprised how much reading you can get done on lunch breaks and waiting in lines! 5/10 minutes at a time add up to a lot of reading eventually.
  I still play games and watch videos at home, but replacing phone scrolling with a book has done me wonders. Highly recommend.
  
  For me, reading is a part of my nightly routine of going to bed. I'll lay down and read until I fall asleep - it usually doesn't take too long. I only make it through a few books a year, but I enjoy it.

Thumbnail looks like this Bruno Mars album cover

I hope to read less anti-male, pseudo intellectual slop like the article OP linked. Even for Vox this is too much.

I can only speak for myself, but since December I read 4 fiction books and I'm working on my 3rd non-fiction book.
- Somehow I only had the patience for 3 or 4 books all year last year, but I got myself an eReader for Christmas and I'm already on my third book, so I guess that was the problem. Weirdly, I thought I wouldn't like an eReader but I got it for the purposes of future commuting. Turns out I like it a lot more than physical books. 🤷‍♂️
  
  Weirdly, I thought I wouldn’t like an eReader but I got it for the purposes of future commuting. Turns out I like it a lot more than physical books.
  I've found Reading ebooks on a portable screen a better experience for myself than paper since late 90s Palm Pilot (Handspring Visor, for me) days.
  Being able to carry dozens (or now hundreds) of books with you is so convenient and if you don't like the book you're reading, you don't need to go somewhere to get a different one. Its replacement is already in your hand. Reading paperbacks for hours isn't comfortable for me as it either takes two hands, or one hand with a difficult "guitar chord" like hand shape. Hardbacks are heavy to carry. Ereaders also can produce their own light (and at VERY low levels if you want). Paper books means finding and staying next to a reflective light source.
  Paper books are great for collectables, but if I'm going to read, I much prefer an ebook.
- I can only do the same. I pretty much exclusively read non-fiction but I'm about as far from toxic masculinity as you can be at this point

Pew’s 2021 study says 73 percent of men say they’ve read a book in the past year, compared to 78 percent of women. Those numbers are up a tad from 2016, when 68 percent of men said they’d read a book compared to 77 percent of women.
That's significantly higher than I expected. I know plenty of men and women that almost never get through a book in a year. Or maybe they just do it in secret.

Forget about what men are reading. Kids as younf as 12 are getting politically charged. And being praised for it
- I need to know which side they're being politically charged towards before I know whether I should be angry or happy. Are they being taught about immigration being bad and religion good? Or the other way around? How about environmentalism and trans rights?

I mostly read news articles in varying fields. Quantum physics is really doing some things that I can barely grasp anymore.

Garbage in, garbage out

Yet another article telling me how I'm not living my life correctly. I'm about to just leave the fucking Internet forever and just live my life without all the pressure to be better all the time.
No matter what I do, someone on the internet tells me I'm not good enough.
- I would try not to take systemic critiques (especially unsubstantiated ones like this) personally.
  But maybe that's just easy for me. I don't give a shit about what anyone says about me or what I should do, unless I purposefully care about those people's opinions (family, friends, etc).

This reminds me of this site.

If anyone needs a good fiction read, the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons was so good that I just finished my second run of the series. It involves entities that run backwards in time as a future, space-faring human society moves forwards in time, and everything snaps into place in the last book. Very satisfying, and re-readable!
One discovered planet has tombs that are moving backwards in time, and nobody has any idea what they do, except that they are beginning to open, and a death cult is involved. And all hell is about to break loose :)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0399178619

What a bunch of BS. If anything we’re all reading TOO much.

43 comments