What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
— Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985)
I started reading very recently. In fact, it wasn’t until my sister gifted me an e-Reader back in ~2020 that I started seriously picking up books. During childhood, I was never exposed to books and had always seen them as boring and intimidating. For some reason, I never had the motivation to read, and everyone else around me also did not seem to read. It felt unnatural and even contrarian to be seen picking up a book and reading it, a feeling which I think persists (if not more) even in the adult society I am living in now. But recently, I realised how amazing it is to read, to be able to so easily peer into one’s imagined worlds through my own interpretation (which is hardly something you can do consuming visual-based content). For once, the words which had scared me for most of my life revealed themselves in their utmost elegance. Of course, there are also countless studies which have shown the risks and dangers of modern entertainment, as well as the studies on the great literacy crisis and its impacts, all of which bring great points, yet I will avoid discussing them here for simplicity’s sake (read it on your own!).
The main point I want to get to here, however, is that I noticed how privileged I am to be in a position to read. Despite libraries offering books that everyone is free to borrow and use, and schools teaching and encouraging children to read, it is still a largely inaccessible hobby. Why then is it inaccessible, despite it being literally free?
I spent most of my life in Indonesia, a relatively poor place compared to where I have been spending my time recently—namely Hong Kong and the UK. People in developing nations, due to their relatively low income and lack of public infrastructure, often prefer instant gratification over more long term solutions (Shafir & Mullainathan, 2013). This translates into entertainment mediums as well. For people living here, life is tough enough that an instant boost of dopamine obtained through mobile gaming and short-form content is often seen as the panacea to their problems. You can easily consume 10 short-form videos and feel happy, but people here often do not have the luxury of having half an hour to read through a chapter of a book, which I (subjectively) think is the minimum amount of time you need to read in order to get anything out of a book and finish it effectively.
Public infrastructure is also often bad enough that the closest library might still be inaccessible, and with books being expensive relative to their living expenses, parents giving their children access to their phones seems to be the obvious better choice. Not only are phones ‘free’, in the sense that parents will most likely already have a phone, they are also a much more effective entertainment medium, in the sense that it makes people happier faster. And thus one’s childhood ends up being mostly, if not fully, spent with or alongside phones. In adulthood, people are too preoccupied with their own jobs, and with income being relatively low, it leaves little disposable income to spend on books (or in my case, an e-Reader). Again, the country’s poor public infrastructure and little exposure to books as children makes it unlikely for an adult to go the extra mile to visit their local library. This in turn creates a vicious cycle where people’s lack of interest in books and reading disincentivises the creation of libraries, bookstores, and a healthy culture of reading, which then leads to less interest in reading all again.
Lastly, education levels are also still fairly low in Indonesia such that it severely restricts the range of books they can read. According to OECD, $\geq 70\%$ of Indonesians are reported to have low literacy skills. This means that even if they do want to read, the types of books they can read are very limited. Literature is often calibrated to the linguistic proficiency of its intended audience. Unless they are reading it as children, there will likely be a mismatch between the selection of books and their interests. Empirically, there is also comparatively limited number of literary works in Bahasa Indonesia, and with Indonesia having one of the lowest English proficiency rates in the world, finding the right book is often a challenge in itself. Hence, they will not only be restricted by the types of books they can read but also simply by the limited supply of books itself.
It should be fairly clear how all of this ties with the concept of ‘privilege’. Countries with governments that encourage reading through the active construction and promotion of libraries will end up with a more reading-capable populace. A family living in a developing country and yet is wealthy enough to send their children to a private school with better facilities will—alongside a number of additional privileges they get to enjoy—be more likely to pick up reading as a hobby. In fact, I am born into one such family, and yet it is my biggest wish for more people in my country to read, not only so I can feel less secluded, but also to safeguard the written word in an era where its value feels fragile.