People really over exaggerate the importance of reading because they're repeating memes from back when reading was the only way of getting information. All the people like Voltaire with cool quotes about books would be saying cool things about movies and documentaries if they lived now.

If you're in a phase of your life where reading appeals to you then do it, if you're not then don't beat yourself up about it there's endless great ways of getting a far richer version of whatever you were looking for - want to get lost in a world of imagination? Good video games are just as good as good books. Want to learn about new perspectives and distant lands? Why not deep dive into some tiktok rabbit holes - real people without that filter of having to be the sort of person to write and get their work published, anywhere in the world you can see every day dramas, struggles, successes, and stories.

I know people will be angry I said it but yes tiktok can be just like a good book when you explore it with an open mind, video games can be wonderfully compelling and really open up your imagination. Personally I wish I had time and the interests to do more of both, I'm still not halfway through bg3 and I brought it on release and haven't played anything else. I have listened to a few books in that time (mostly from librivox, great free audiobooks with so many classics and wonderful Victorian oddities) but that's not because I'm better or smarter than people who are drawn to other things but because it's a form of entrainment which works well for me.

So yeah if you want to read more then maybe get an audio book like the woodlanders by Thomas Hardy from librivox, put it on your headphones and go for a nice walk then when you're getting into the story you'll be drawn to keep listening while you do chores like cleaning, and if you're like me you'll find chores to do just to keep in the story.

A great thing about Victorian literature is you can listen to the rompiest penny dreadful like the mysteries of London (available on librivox) and it's got the entrainment of being trash but also it's a historical document so you're learning history from primary sources at the same time.

But if you want to learn instead about Tumblr's sold to one direction trope in a half hour video essay on YouTube then I genuinely think that's an equally valid use of your time (actually surprisingly interesting too, I think it was a strange aeons video)