Boost Reading Culture

A few days ago, a seventh-grade student asked me a simple question that stayed with me long after the class ended. We were reading a short story by a well-known Nepali writer. The story was only five pages long, yet it explored a delicate human emotion in considerable depth. The student asked, almost innocently, “Sir, why didn’t the writer just tell the story in a few lines? Why make it five pages?” I explained that literature sometimes needs space to make us experience a feeling deeply. 

He nodded, but his question continued to trouble me. Perhaps it was not simply a child’s impatience. Perhaps it reflected a larger change in the way we consume information.

Students increasingly prefer summaries to complete stories, guidebooks to textbooks and guess papers to genuine exploration. Adults are not very different. We often choose headlines over articles, short posts over essays and quick explanations over careful reading. We want the conclusion without taking the journey. Smartphones and digital platforms have changed our relationship with information. Short videos, reels and constantly changing content encourage us to move rapidly from one thing to another. After becoming accustomed to this speed, a detailed story or article can feel demanding. This is particularly important for Generation Alpha, which is growing up surrounded by smartphones, tablets and instant information. Children are comfortable with rapid changes of attention, but reading requires something different. A good story asks us to stay with characters, notice details, experience uncertainty and understand emotions gradually.