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Do Millennials Still Read?

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Editor at Latinas Who Hustle

Last Saturday, I attended the Festival of Books leading the LWH (Latinas Who Hustle) Network in partnership with Los Angeles Times en Español. As a digital content creator, I am constantly looking for creative ways to expand the reach of our brands and to engage more with our audiences. When Los Angeles Times en Español suggested the idea of collaborating with us for the Festival of Books hosted in the University of Southern California, I got very excited. I truly enjoy reading books, however, my biggest motivation was to give our network and myself, the opportunity to prove millennials are more than likes and followers on Instagram.

I am certain all of us have heard this before: “Your generation does not read anymore.” or “Millennials only care about perfect selfies”. While those statements are true for some people, in my opinion, they do not describe most of us. Our generation is constantly craving for truth, taking initiative to change conventional wisdom and push others to get out of their comfort zone. We are aware our time here is valuable, and we firmly believe it should be used in meaningful work along with actions.

t’s not that we don’t consume content anymore, it’s just that we consume it differently. We live in an age where we have hundreds of emails piling up, texts, what’s app messages, social media messages and calls. Technology made us so available to the world that our careers demand our attention 24/7. We book flights, beauty and doctor appointments with our smart phones. We also get our food, transportation and clothes through apps as well.

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Since it’s expected from us to be efficient, fast and tech savvy, we have acquired a new skill to survive in this world and absorb information on the-go which most of us know it as “skimming”. We skim newspapers, academic textbooks, newsletters, flyers and magazines. I have only heard of people truly reading a book cover to cover for pleasure or if it’s necessary to grow their careers.

The question perhaps should not be whether millennials read or not but whether print and digital publications will collaborate to keep growing readership among younger generations. The mission is to keep the community informed, educated and engaged which can be achieved by utilizing a mix of distribution channels, not precisely one or the other.

We’d like to thank the team of Los Angeles en Español for providing this great opportunity of experiencing the Festival of Books. We look forward to seeing more and more events promoting readership and storytelling among all generations across the country.

Instagram @annie_grijalva

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