Serious reading under serious threat?

We can safely say the following about current reading trends:

1. We read more online content than books

2. Readers are topic, quality, source, vintage and author agnostic

3. Casual reading has outpaced deep reading

4. Reading is an 'anytime' activity rather than an intellectual 'pastime'.

5. Reads are shared....and reshared; water is the only other thing that flows everywhere

As device population edges closer to human population, reading is seeing the most changes. We read more in quantitative terms than ever before, but a lot less qualitatively. what we read is a direct function of in-bound data traffic into our devices. Our comfortable read lengths are falling like the proverbial miniskirt! My daughter's generation puts away all interesting articles for a 'future date', if at all.

I have read and re-read more jokes, puns, idioms, quotes, sarcasm and heroics in the past 12 months than in decades before that, thanks to the 'forward' culture! Blogs have supplanted official news and great pictures show the power of Photoshop applications. Facts are a bit fuzzy as are copyrights. Readers do not care, though!

Economists, literateurs and historians have trouble getting readers' attention due to their long foreplay. Conclusions are expected at the top of an article, not at the end. Words are also shorter and phonetics are back in vogue. New abbreviations and emojis are part of written text. 

This piece has already exceeded the 'good read' length. Here is the final thought: The reading habit is set to get worse..... before miraculously turning it on its head again back to authenticity and seriousness like all fashions. But when? No one knows. Until then, if you want to be read, remember the miniskirt. If you want more likes, catchy headlines will do.