In the 21st century, the function of reading has began to be geared more towards education rather than enjoyment and that is shown through the value of reading due to the decrease in children reading books for enjoyment rather than having to read for school. There are plenty of novels, plays, poetry, etc. still has the ability to transport someone to a different world and spark that reader’s love for reading but other types of media and technology, like video games and phones, have slowly began to overtake the traditional literature and encourage kids to no longer read. The change from literature to technolgy has been shown in different studies of the behaviors of children and teens. An example of this is, from the article “The Real Reason Kids Aren’t Reading More”, is that by the year 2021, social media usage in tweens and teens have rose drastically, to where tweens spend five and a half hours a day on social media while teens spend eight and a half hours on social media. This shows that technology has slowly become a more prevelent type of media in children which, depending on how it is used, can prevent a child from gaining the reading skills they would otherwise obtain if they were reading some type of traditional literature.
Source: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-real-reasons-kids-arent-reading-more/2022/03
The changing landscape of reading and lessening importance of traditional literature is a truly fascinating subject, worthy of consideration. The prevalence of things like Audible for consumption of novels that formerly would have been read, for instance, or the departure from engaging with reading at all, and instead simply surfing social media as you mentioned in your post are real issues that you do a good job of bringing up. Overall, your engagement with the topic, though brief, shows an understanding of the difficulties our society will face in future as the world moves towards an increasingly online ecosystem; especially for literature and reading, a problem most felt by the educators of the youth.
As books assume less and less of an entertainment function, we may have the opportunity to see more and more works that are serious, profound, and promote thought, hopefully.