‘Reading is a dying hobby in this multimedia age.’ Is this true?
Reading as a pastime has been likened to an endangered animal facing extinction from the threat of the poachers — in this case, the multimedia age. It has been said that reading as a hobby is gradually losing its appeal as opposed to Internet gaming, blogging (writing an online diary), listening to podcasts and ipods and watching popular drama series on television. Evidently, many more forms of recreation and leisure are rising up from the multimedia sector and threaten to replace reading as a hobby in this age.
Today, one of the strongest competitors of reading is the Internet. With its plethora of easily accessible information, the Internet easily outshines reading as a more exciting and fun way of relaxation. Online gaming, especially, has taken root in [the lives of] most teens today as the top hobby of all. Fewer teenagers are spending more time on reading than on online gaming. In fact, online gaming is fast becoming an addiction among school children. It has been reported that there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of cases of online-gaming addiction among teens in Singapore. Furthermore, book loan statistics from the libraries of Singapore show a decrease in the number of books borrowed per person over the past few years. This has prompted the National Library Board to launch a series of reading programmes and measures to “up” the statistics as well as interest among Singaporeans, for example, increasing the maximum number of books borrowable from eight to twelve [Ed.: from 4 to 8?], as well as launching “Read! Singapore 2006”, a reading-centred campaign. If reading as a hobby has not been facing some significant decline in popularity, would it be necessary to embark on such programmes to encourage others to read more? Hence reading risks being outdated in our increasingly