Are We Reading or Just Pretending?

Imlisanen Jamir

There’s a familiar lament that echoes through the years: we’ve lost our love for books, they say. Especially the young ones, glued to their screens, chasing fleeting dopamine hits in the form of likes, memes, and endless reels. It’s a convenient viewpoint—one that has a ring of truth. The modern world has conditioned us to consume information in rapid, bite-sized pieces. In such a landscape, the act of sitting down with a hefty tome feels archaic, something reserved for the dwindling few who cling to the tactile pleasure of flipping pages.

But here’s the thing: books, it seems, have found a way to slip back into relevance, albeit in a curious, almost ironic fashion. On social media, particularly Instagram, books have become part of an aesthetic. They’re props in carefully curated shots, held in the hands of influencers with soft lighting and moody filters, signaling something profound and thoughtful. The cynic might dismiss it as superficial, but what if, in trying to look the part, some of these people actually end up reading? Even here, in Nagaland, a place that boasts one of the highest literacy rates in the country, this phenomenon isn’t lost. Scroll through any feed, and you’ll find it—books as symbols, gestures toward a deeper engagement with the world, or at least an attempt to appear that way.

And if this is where we are, maybe that’s not so bad. Maybe the way we approach books has shifted, but the hunger for stories, for information, for understanding, remains. It’s just taking new forms. Audiobooks, podcasts, torrents of obscure texts buried in the corners of the internet—all are ways to access knowledge in ways we couldn’t have dreamed of a generation ago. Longform reading may feel like a thing of the past, but curiosity is alive and well, even if it now takes a different shape.

Even more telling is the wave of new authors emerging, young voices writing and publishing with increasing frequency. In a world obsessed with instant gratification, they’re taking the time to create, to craft stories and ideas that speak to their experience. The old guard might scoff, but this generation is redefining what it means to read, to learn, to engage. And maybe, just maybe, they’re onto something.

So, say what you will about the young. They may live in a different world, one ruled by the internet and all its distractions. But their curiosity, their drive to create, is still there—quiet, persistent, and ultimately, unstoppable.

Comments can be sent to imlisanenjamir@gmail.com