One of the troubling trends is the decline in habits around reading among the youth in Kashmir. In Kashmir, with the growing dynamics of technology and the smartphone generation, youth generally seem to gravitate towards online study materials, which reduce stress but represent troubling trends of shallow learning, indiscriminate critical thinking, and separating interested reading for pleasure.
While the level of accessibility offered by a digital platform has some advantages, it does not replace the intellectual and emotional benefits gained from the encounter with a tangible book in one’s hand.
To see a land that was traditionally often an intellectual and cultural landscape steeped in literature and books is particularly troubling when views of its reading habits drop off significantly. Libraries that were previously the envy of other communities with students and others bumping elbows are now at a historically low engagement.
Reading straight from books is an anachronism driven increasingly by digital shortcuts like PDFs, summarized notes or video lectures for younger cohorts. It is common to see deep reading, which inspires imagination, analytical thinking, and patience to yield to fragmentary online consumption.
Moreover, the e-reading activity is often focused on the surface than the core of reading. It not only worsens retention and comprehension but also leaves out the possibility of unintended discoveries with e-books, for example, the unavailable ones due to inability to randomly flip pages, highlight interesting passages, and then share these with others.
Making this scenario happen again requires a joint effort. Libraries, schools, and colleges have to take on a mission to support the visits of libraries and organize reading clubs accompanied by thematic discussions on literature that will quicken the interest of the students.
In addition, parents should make reading an ingrained habit by gifting books to their children instead of gadgets.
Teachers have to establish a connection between reading the classics and using digital resources. The education program should include the names of local writers and poets to increase the students’ sense of belonging and ownership of the regional literary heritage of Kashmir.
Kashmir’s legacy of intellectuality flourishes modifying the thoughts and the feelings through the reading of books. It is time to decide to withdraw the screen den and welcome the world of learning from literature while the love for reading is not completely swallowed up by the digital world.
