UK Teens prefer to read celebrity
news, song lyrics to books
Teens in Britain read blogs, Heat,
Bliss magazines, song lyrics and
loathe books over 100 pages.
29 March, 2008
Teenagers in UK prefer to read
celebrity news, blogs, or song lyrics
over homework and classics. Quite
surprisingly, even immensely popular
books like the Harry Potter series have been
overtaken by online blogs and websites
with computer games.
These are the findings of a survey
conducted in the United Kingdom
recently titled Read Up, Fed Up:
Exploring Teenage Reading Habits in
the UK Today. The survey was
commissioned by the organizers of the
National Year of Reading, which
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
launched in January 2008.
In the survey, over 1,340 teenagers
aged 11-14 year were questioned online
about their reading habits.
The chief findings of the survey are:
Many teenagers prefer reading on the
internet to the traditional book.
A majority of children opt to read
magazines such as Heat and Bliss.
Other top-rated teenage reads include
song lyrics online, their own internet
diary ‘blogs’ and film scripts.
While the likes of Heat come out on
top, the fourth least-loved text was
“reading about skinny celebrities in
magazines.”
The respondents are enthusiastic about
some literature, including Anne
Frank’s Diary and books by Anthony
Horowitz, who created the 14-year-old
spy Alex Rider.
The Harry Potter series of books
appear in both lists – of best-loved
novels and least-loved novels.
Sixty years after it was written,
Anne Frank’s Diary comes just one
place behind J K Rowling’s
world-famous Harry Potter wizard books
in the best-loved list.
The study found a “significant”
decline in the number of England’s
pupils with a positive attitude to
reading and a “small but significant”
increase in the numbers with negative
attitudes.
On the most-disliked list are books
more than 100 pages long, and those
that children have to read for school.
Encyclopaedias, dictionaries, music
scores and the Financial Times
are ranked among the least-enjoyed
reads.
According to the researchers, while
parents attempt to make children read
“heavyweight” books, 45% of teenagers
polled said they have been reproached
by an adult for enjoying something
that is not “proper” reading.
At the same time, the researchers
stressed, parents must realize that
much of children’s reading is now
online.
The rise of celebrity culture was
reflected in the top choices – like
the Heat and Bliss
magazines. However, the researchers
conclude in their report that that the
teens are reaching a “tolerance
tipping point in their consumption of
celebrity magazines.”
According to the newspaper Scotsman,
during a span of 5 years, schools in
the United Kingdom fell from the 3rd
place to the 19th place in an
international table of reading
achievement.
Here is a list of most-loved reads and
most-loathed reads for teenagers in
Britain, according to the report
Read Up, Fed Up: Exploring Teenage
Reading Habits in the UK Today:
Most loved reads
1. Heat magazine
2. Bliss magazine; online song
lyrics
3. Online computer game cheats
4. My own blog or fan fiction
5. The Harry Potter series
6. Anne Frank’s Diary
7. Film scripts
8. Books by Anthony Horowitz
9 The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe, by C S Lewis
10 BBC Online; the Confessions of
Georgia Nicolson and books by Louise
Rennison
Most loathed reads
1. Homework
2. Shakespeare
3. Books of over 100 pages
4. Magazine articles about skinny
celebrities
5. Books assigned by school/teachers
6. Encyclopaedias and dictionaries
7. The Beano
8. Music (scores); the Harry Potter
series; maps/directions
9. Facebook
10. Financial Times; Anything
in another language
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