Millennials are out-reading Boomers and Gen-Xers, and buy their books more often than checking them out at the library, according to a new study.
Pew Research Center reported Wednesday that "88 percent of Americans under 30 read a book in the past year, compared with 79 percent of those age 30 and older." Millennials read at about the same rate as older age groups when it comes to reading a book on daily basis, however, with 43 percent.
The new findings were surprising to many who've cast the youngsters as being technology obsessed and — as the inventors of "selfie" photos — superficial and vain with short attention spans.
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Even more shocking was the study's finding that plugged-in Millennials were more likely than older generations to report that there was a lot of useful information that could not be found online, but could be found in books.
"In other words, the demographic that gets criticized for relying on the Internet most was also the most likely to acknowledge its limitations,"
The Atlantic wrote.
More than half of those in the survey, which included responses from more than 6,000 Americans, said they tend to buy books rather than check them out from the library — with Millennials reporting most strongly amongst the age groups that library closures would have little impact on their lives.
Women, Hispanics, African Americans, those with less education, and the poor were more likely to call library services "very important."
In a recent editorial
published Tuesday in Politico magazine, a Millennial wrote that polling like the Pew study is often used by older generations to generalize about the younger generation. In the piece, titled "Stop Talking 'Bout My Generation," he cautioned against the itch to wax poetic on the younger generations.
"It’s hard to tease out useful generalizations about a diverse group of 80 million people, and much easier to shoot from the hip while cherry-picking the findings of PR-hungry market research firms," he wrote.
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