A Personal Social Dilemma of Print and Digital Books

When I was a kid, I got bullied for reading books. As I got older, Scholastic book fairs ceased to exist and so did reading among my peers. If I remember correctly, I had one of the highest reading levels in my third grade class and yet, I was embarrassed to tell anyone. My classmates started getting phones and I was still a bookworm. 

Growing up in the “digital age”, I often reconcile this nostalgia. The many class book-fair library trips, catalogs, pointer fingers, posters, jelly pens, and the endless series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I remember I would beg my parents to let me go after school to buy the latest book I saw hours prior (if it was within our price range). I would even highlight or draw little stars by a caption of books I found interesting. 

My parents would also influence my childhood book addiction, as I would go to Barnes and Noble every other Saturday with my mother and sister. We would each pick out books and play with the other kids that also loved their Saturday outings. And since the Target was right next door, this was an all day event. But, that was before my mother bought the “Nook”. 

The “Nook” is a tablet that was made by Barnes and Noble in 2012 which at the time was almost equivalent to the newest  iPad (but more literature based). It featured a touch screen and access to any book or magazine you could think of. Although it wasn’t widely popular, it was affordable and did its featured job, which was exactly what my mother wanted. Which unfortunately meant no more Barnes and Noble Saturday trips and the decline of my printed book collection. 

This tablet was my first access to ebooks and I was hooked. Books were shown and read to you in different languages and conveyed sassy tones (which I enjoyed). Often, I found myself scrolling to find books through there because I suddenly felt that scrolling through pages was better than holding a physical copy. 

However, when I became a tween, I stopped reading books entirely. For some reason my desire just vanished and the idea of spending hours reading felt daunting. I couldn’t even get through an ebook anymore. This led to my transition from tablet to my very first cell phone.    

When I received my first personal phone in eighth grade, my only obsession was what was popular at the time and it wasn’t books. When I got into high school, I wanted to try to fit in more and no one I knew read anything. In fact, they hated the idea of even reading for a class project. With not having a good high school experience, I didn’t want to get back into it and have another reason for people to think I was “weird”. Also, I didn’t want to be in the category of reading for the “aesthetic” and not the actual content of authors’ stories. 

It wasn’t until after high school into college that I started reading again. Except this time I despised any form of audio or ebook (unlucky for my wallet). Leaving criticisms to get back into things I enjoyed was my favorite part about leaving my hometown. It was hard to face a hobby you once were because of a fear of judgment or the *eyebrow raise* if you include a sentence with reading. 

Now, I have flipped views again as I would rather read a book than spend my free time *doom* scrolling on my phone or social media. Going forward, I feel that we can tend to spend too much time trying to “fit” in that we forget what our actual favorite hobbies are. Whether that’s reading or not, deep down we should do the things we enjoy, social stigma or not.