Readers make leaders

This post is in response to the indispire topic 20 which is "Reading books has reduced dramatically in today's youth. Kids who read books are treated as socially incapable nerds. What is your take on this topic?"

Here's my take:-

Yes and no.

Yes to the first statement: -
Reading books has reduced dramatically in today's youth.

With many other forms of information and entertainment having taken up their mind space like television/ internet etc, kids today have many methods of getting their information. So they choose the ones which suit them best. It could be books, it could be audio-visual, as long as they get their dose of Vitamin I (information).

No to the second one:-

Kids who read books are treated as socially incapable nerds.

I think probably, you are talking about those kids who keep reading only their school books all the time, the stereotype we see in our movies. If they keep reading only study books and nothing else, they are obviously going to not be very street smart.

But this also applies to the person who only keeps working out in the gym all the time without doing anything much else.You have to understand that this is only a stereotype just like some people erroneously assume that people with golden hair (blondes) have low intellect.

Book lovers are not socially incapable. If anything at all, books give knowledge, knowledge is power and power builds confidence. How can kids who read books, then be socially incapable?

It is people with low confidence who are socially incapable.

I simply cannot imagine where the above misconception comes from. As far as I know, I have never met any person who has been considered socially incapable because he or she reads. If there is anyone who believes in the statement, his or her misconception must be instantly squashed because they have no idea of what sort of power a well-read person can yield.

My daughter is a prolific reader. She has a few friends who are not interested in reading at all. Their mothers keep complaining about this all the time. Those friends, in fact, keep asking her how she manages to read so much. If anything at all, they are in awe of her reading habit. Some of the most eloquent, confident and knowledgeable kids in her school who are prefects and house heads are all prolific readers…hardly the type who may be called socially incapable.

Schools and educational institutions have for ever encouraged the reading habit and now even more so with the advent of places like Crosswords and Landmark which hold reading sessions among the youth. Rest assured, I think most of our youth are moving in the right direction. As for the ones above…I don’t know what can save them. :D. And to sign off...