Words, letters, chapters, characters, stories, tales, myths, BOOKS. These are for today’s generation things of the past. Relics that have lost their meaning over the vicissitudes of time. Reading as we know it today has merged with Instagram and Snapchat,and the never ending ad infinitum social media apps, which seem to have become second nature to us.

However, reading isn’t some boring activity you’re supposed to partake in just because your mother has snatched away your phone due to your excessive use of social media and replaced it with a big fat old book which you hate because “Hey, reading is so uncool right?”

For those of you wondering, reading is a rather lucrative proposition. It improves vocabulary, and it does so in such a way that no TV show or movie can. It helps improve sentence construction. It helps develop an ability to critically think and analyse (and trust me, when the SAT paper looms, you’ll thank the books, not Instagram).

But that’s really not it. Do not read because it’s a good habit. Do not read because it’ll make you smarter. Read for the sheer love of reading - the joy of falling in love with fiction is absolutely ineffable. Read for the simple reason that in those 400 pages and between the myriad colloquy of characters, you will not only find but possibly rediscover yourself.

It’s not that reading an article on Instagram or reading scandalous gossip on Snapchat will make you completely dumb or harm you beyond repair. Social media is definitely important; now more than ever. But it’s important to maintain a balance. The advice and stories on social media do not have the same effect as reading a book does. They just don’t. In a world full of the insanity of social media, reading is the sanity. Books are not symbols of a bygone era, but are as pertinent today as they have been through history. Books make the personality, make a better you.