Reading, a treasured activity that enlightens and broadens minds, comes with its share of negative effects when indulged in excessively. As Edna Ferber rightly stated, “Perhaps too much of everything is as bad as too little,” the overconsumption of literature can lead to various adverse repercussions, impacting one’s physical, mental, and social well-being.
Before dwelling into what harm can reading too much cause, let’s first take a look at what people are reading these days.
Modern reading trends
Modern reading trends reflect a vibrant and diverse literary landscape that has captured the fascination of audiences worldwide. A recent survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of ThriftBooks shed light on the preferences of readers.
Fantasy emerges as the top choice among almost half of the surveyed population (49%), captivating readers with its imaginative and fantastical worlds. Following closely is the romance genre, capturing the hearts of 42% of readers, while history entices 39% of the audience with its tales of the past. Additionally, sci-fi stands strong in fourth place, intriguing 36% of readers with its futuristic and speculative themes.
Janice Radway’s research in cultural studies further delves into the preferences of readers when it comes to characters in literature. Readers often gravitate towards heroes embodying traits of humour (37%), honesty (34%), and kindness (29%). Similarly, heroines are preferred for their intelligence (36%), humour (36%), and independence (28%), with only a mere 6% emphasising the importance of physical beauty in female characters.
These trends indicate a multifaceted interest among readers, spanning across genres that offer diverse and engaging narratives.
Negative effects of reading
What we read exerts a profound influence on our thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives, shaping our understanding of the world and ourselves. The content we immerse ourselves in—be it books, articles, or stories—holds the power to ignite our imagination, expand our knowledge, and evoke deep emotions.
Prolonged exposure to negative, distressing, or overly intense material can lead to heightened stress, anxiety, and emotional distress. Reading material that contains graphic or triggering content might evoke feelings of fear, sadness, or trauma, impacting our mental health.
Additionally, constant exposure to biassed or inaccurate information can shape our beliefs and perceptions, leading to misunderstandings or reinforcing prejudices. Here are some of the adverse effects of reading to watch out for:
- Unrealistic expectations: Reading can often create the ideology of perfection in relationships expecting perfect partners and extravagant gestures which leads to development of unrealistic expectations and dissatisfaction in one’s own life.
Expecting perfectionism can lead to disappointment and strain. It can put undue pressure on ourselves, our partners, friends and family members.
The paralysing fear of failing can result in avoiding relationships because of the high standards readers set for themselves and partners. It can also affect self-esteem because of the constant comparison.
A recent study shows reading excessive romance novels may harm chances of forming a genuine relationship. Dr. Juli Slattery, a psychologist, claims that many women who read these books express discontentment with their marriages or romantic relationships. - Adaptation of the role: It can promote lousy characters with adverse effects. One example is children picking up the bad behaviour of the character from fiction. In the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ franchise, the character Greg Hefley has the habit of never offering a sincere apology, which can cause behavioural problems like defying parents and authority, lying, breaking rules and regulations etc.
It also promotes bad habits like smoking and drinking which can lead to drug abuse and smoking at a young age. It portrays that it’s cool to be rude and disrespect authority.
At times, a well-written book can also result in worry or fear. It allows us to imagine the worst case scenario and we implement that fear in real lives. For example, agonising over the betrayal of whom we love and trust, worry over bacteria-laced food bringing an epidemic, or feeling that we are living in a stimulation. - Escapism: Fantasy, fiction, sci-fi, romance encourages escapism from everyday problems, which leads to the inability to handle a particular situation. It can lead to withdrawal from social relationships, realities of life, lack of connection between friends and family.
One study followed 729 people for 12 years and linked suppressed emotions to a 35% increased risk of death. One typical symptom can also be guilt over unfinished assignments, house chores, neglected relationships – all because we have abandoned reality for too long. Sometimes, we multitask, sleep less, get up earlier, and go to work tired to compensate.
Sometimes the readers become so familiar with fictional characters that blurs the line between reality. It becomes even more concerning when readers prefer fictional existence over reality.
- Romanticisation of toxicity: As readers are developing a taste for dark romance genre, the books romanticise toxic traits like stalking, captivation, bullying, violence, mafia-centred plots, unhealthy obsessions, mistaking jealousy for passion, viewing women as object to claim and possess, degradation, descriptive nature of sex, highlighting physical relationships rather emotional connections, vulgarity, blurring the lines of consent and comfort.
For example, the character Zade in ‘Haunting Adeline’ is drawn to Adeline, he persistently chases her. This fixation results in an unpleasant beginning of the relationship that illustrates the idea that it is acceptable to convince a woman even after she says ‘no’.
Another instance is when an older person expressing interest in a teenager makes them a passionate forbidden lover. The character of Miles in ‘Ugly Love’ is emotionally abusive and the victim keeps forgiving him, thinking the relationship is worth fighting for because women can ‘fIx him’.
Haunting Adeline, Hunting Adeline, Perfectly Imperfectly series, Devil’s Nights series etc. have taken the book-tok community with swift engaging dark romance readers to promote negativity and toxicity.
- Impact on physical well-being: Excessive reading is often coupled with lack of physical activities, poor diet, weight gain or loss, generalised exhaustion. It also causes eye strain and body aches.
Maintaining balance for everything we do is essential, as Jana Kingsford says, “Balance is not something you find, it’s something you create.”
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