What happened to the days of relaxing by curling up with a good book? Reading for fun has become a thing of the past as “Time Magazine” reports that 45 percent of teenagers say they only read by choice once or twice a year in contrast to that in 1984 that number was a mere 9 percent.

Technology may play a part in this decline of reading. As it is so easy for students to look to the internet, readily available at their fingertips or easily stream any show or movie when they desire. However, a huge component that plays a part in teenagers willingness to read is their time available to them because of other homework.

Surveys show that public school teachers report to giving up to over three hours of homework a night. These numbers have increased significantly from past generations according to “The Los Angeles Times”.

With close to 4 hours of homework night, students coming home after school from a sport or activity at 5 would be finishing up at about 9, this is not including eating dinner or showering which would bring the time closer to around 10. If a student who is waking up at 6:30 is getting his recommended 9 hours of sleep they would have to go to bed at 9:30. Realistically high school students are not on average going to bed at 9:30, but even to get 8 hours of sleep at 10:30 would only leave 30 minutes of relaxation for this student.

While some may choose to fill this time with recreational reading, the vast majority of teenagers may wind down from their strenuous school work by watching a show or catching up on social media from the day. It is difficult for students to fit in extra reading on top of what is assigned to them with so little time.

While homework is important, in order to combat the low levels of students reading for fun teachers should diminish the load that is on students. In addition to decreasing homework, English teachers should encourage students to read at least one book a semester by allowing an optional assignment of reading a book and just simply sharing with the class the plot and what they thought about the book, as to not create any more work than reading a book of their choice. In order to increase love of reading, teenagers ought to have the opportunity to create time for reading for recreation.