I personally think that in terms of reading, society has changed immensely compared to the past and we are heading in a negative direction. Nobody has the time to read anymore. It has gotten to the point where we occasionally see someone pick up a magazine while waiting for an appointment, or while waiting to board a flight. The truth of the matter is that reading is not a priority. Students are overburdened with piles of homework and projects, textbooks, extracurricular activities, and finding things that look good on college applications. Adults are struggling to keep their jobs in this tough time with the downfall of the economy, and many are working 12 to 14 hours a day. Who has time to read? In the little breathing time that people have, they want to relax or be with their friends instead of read. Reading is not very appealing to most people, because they would prefer to participate in activities that let their minds go free. When you read, you need to focus your mind and concentrate on the material. The habit of reading has to be developed at an early age, or else it will be harder to inculcate this habit as you get older. This can happen when parents encourage their children to read. Now some of you may ask, what’s the big deal? What’s so great about reading anyway? Well, reading broadens and exercises the mind, and helps people see things from different perspectives and views. There are a countless number of amazing inventions that have taken place in the fields of science, technology, medicine, and more. These are innovations that have come from the minds of real people. As challenging as they may seem, it makes sense once people read about it in books. If reading stays a pastime or a leisure activity, they will never learn. As technology is becoming more advanced, there are ways for people to read books online. So when people to get a chance to read, they usually end up just reading online because they’re just so much more used to using technology for everything. It makes things easier, faster, and more convenient. Whatever happened to actually picking up a real book and flipping through its pages while anticipating what lies ahead in the next chapter? It just isn’t the same as scrolling down an iPad. If our society continues to neglect books for these various reasons, books may turn out to be a rare thing. We’re tracking to turning books into “an endangered species”.