Read or fade out

By Noel Galon de Leon

A recent report resurfaced by GMA News brings back something we already suspect but often ignore in practice. Reading is not just a pastime. It is not merely a hobby for the quiet, the bookish, or those who have extra time on their hands. According to multiple studies, reading is deeply connected to how we think, how we age, and possibly even how long we live.

One study published in Social Science & Medicine in 2016 followed 3,635 adults over a span of 12 years. The finding is striking. Those who read books had about a 20 percent lower risk of dying earlier compared to those who did not read. Even more interesting, individuals who read for at least 30 minutes regularly showed a tendency to live longer than non-readers.

Another study from the University of Connecticut in 2020, in collaboration with Haskins Laboratories, strengthens this idea. It found that keeping the mind engaged through reading books delays cognitive decline and improves both mental and physical well-being. In simpler terms, reading does not only fill the mind with information. It helps preserve it.

This is not abstract science. This is about how we live daily.

A neurologist from Makati Medical Center, Dr. Cymbeline Perez Santiago, describes book reading as a full-brain workout. Unlike scrolling through short videos or passively consuming images, reading forces the brain to imagine, process, and construct meaning. It demands attention in a time when attention is becoming one of the most fragile human abilities.

She explains that books, especially long-form reading, train focus and discipline. In a digital world dominated by rapid content, this is becoming rare. Attention spans are shrinking, not because people are incapable of thinking deeply, but because they are constantly trained not to.

Reading, according to her, strengthens memory, sharpens analytical thinking, and even improves writing skills. More importantly, it gives the brain a kind of exercise that passive entertainment simply cannot replace.

She also gives a very practical reminder. Reading should not feel like pressure. It should feel like something enjoyable—something you return to naturally. A few pages while waiting in a bank. A chapter during a clinic visit. A book you slowly finish without rushing deadlines. There is no rule that a book must be finished in a week. Even a few minutes of reading already has value.

That last point feels important because somewhere along the way, reading became something people feel guilty about not doing enough of. In reality, the problem is not time. The problem is habit.

Here in Iloilo, and across many parts of the Philippines, especially among young people, the culture of reading is quietly fading. We see intelligence celebrated in schools, yet after graduation, many rarely pick up a book again unless required. We consume content constantly, but most of it is short, fast, and easily forgotten.

This is where the concern becomes personal.

Because when I look around, even among people I know, reading is no longer a daily practice. It has become occasional at best. And if adults are already distant from books, what more for the younger generation growing up in a world where everything is reduced to scrolling and swiping?

We should not romanticize reading as something old-fashioned or elitist. It is not. It is one of the simplest and most powerful tools available to any person, regardless of background. You do not need money to start. You only need time and the decision to begin.

The GMA News feature and the studies behind it should not just be consumed and forgotten like any other online post. It should be a reminder—even a wake-up call—especially for Filipino youth and young Ilonggos who still have the opportunity to build strong mental habits early in life.

Because reading does not only teach us about the world. It quietly changes how we think about it. It strengthens patience in a culture that rewards impatience. It builds depth in a time that favors surface-level reactions. It teaches focus when everything else is designed to break it.

And perhaps the most uncomfortable truth is this: A society that stops reading slowly becomes a society that stops thinking deeply.

If there is anything worth reviving today, it is not just interest in books. It is the discipline of attention itself.

Pick up a book, even if only for a few minutes. Not because it is trendy. Not because it is required. But because, in a noisy world, the ability to read deeply might be one of the last remaining forms of quiet strength we have left.

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Noel Galon de Leon is a writer and professor at the University of the Philippines Visayas, where he teaches in the Division of Professional Education and at UP High School in Iloilo. He is also the Secretary of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts–National Committee on Literary Arts.