For Chinese youngsters, reading is the new social networking: Survey

Beijing: For many Chinese youngsters, reading is still a personal hobby, but they now prefer to read socially, according to a recent survey.

A report published in the China Youth Daily earlier this week revealed that over 55 percent of university students surveyed have attended social reading activities or become a book club member to make friends.

The survey polled 2,437 students in 163 Chinese colleges and universities and found that approximately 47 percent of them participated in social reading activities online, about 15 percent engaged in relevant events in person, while more than 37 percent used both approaches.

There are multiple forms for them to take part in such activities. About 48 percent of the respondents said they would share their reading notes and views online, over 12 percent said they would look for a “reading mate” to read together, while 18 percent prefer attending a reading club online or offline. Nearly 20 percent of them said they would leave their comments on posts about the books they like online.

One of the reasons why young people experiment social reading is that they want to learn new ideas from the books. However, more than a half of those polled said they use socialized reading as an incentive to read. Over 41 percent of the students surveyed said they wanted to make friends with similar interests through these activities while more than 27 percent said reading may be a mode of social networking for them.

However, there are also some people who do not like reading socially. Most people who choose not to participate in such activities expressed concern that it may cause distraction in reading or lead to problems such as reading for the sake of formality.