[phillipamann]

It is likely that if you did an experiment that compared retention and understanding of reading with the real books and these Instagram Stories, the readers of real books would trounce the Instagram readers. I suppose that something is better than nothing but at a certain point, I also wonder, what is the point of doing this? I wonder how many Instagram readers will drop their habits and read more? I also wonder how many of these readers will finish the books? I didn't see that information presented in the article.

[dawg-]

Any given Instagram reader may not have read a real book in their life - or maybe they are avid readers who read constantly. All the same, there will always be readers and non-readers.

Literary snobs today imagine a past world where everybody was constantly discussing the finer points of the classic masterpieces every day of their lives. In reality only about 12% of the global population in 1820 was literate. And that's just baseline, not to speak of people who actually spent time reading difficult, thoughtful, full-length books.

Thoreau has a great passage in Walden (published in the 1850s) where he complains about people knowing how to read, yet spending their time reading garbage romance novels instead of classics like the Iliad. I think the complaint of people "reading books" on Instagram comes from the exact same place. It's a timeless problem, which is not really a problem.

Even when global literacy reaches 100%, there will still be a very small percentage of people who are hardcore readers. There is a certain kind of person who will sit down with a big heavy paper book and read it cover to cover, and they are not a common species among humans. It's something you are born with, or something that you gain in very early childhood anyway, and nothing Instagram does will ever change that.

So there's really no use in complaining about it one way or the other. Instagrammers will instagram. Some of them will read real books too, and others will not.

[interestica]

> it is likely

There's no basis in that assumption. In fact, I'd argue that it's possible that this format (interspersed with graphics and with a user base tuned to ingest content in a certain way) may actually aid retention and understanding. Instagram users have gotten very good at quickly gleaning information from the format. There's a huge userbase and they are not likely carrying around a physical book or eReader. This book format is essentially on them at all times and takes advantage of the potential to "hook" a user at an opportune moment.

Instagram users aren't expected to "drop their habits". Their habit is one of consumption - this just fits into that habit.

[CathedralBorrow]

> I also wonder, what is the point of doing this?

This is answered in the article:

"The project, known as Insta Novels, is part of the NYPL’s goal to reach beyond its walls and convince more people to read books."

[damontal]

Anecdotal but I find I retain a audiobooks I've listened to far more than actual physical books I've read.

[rolltiide]

If people have a compelling experience who cares?

I think its useful as a thought exercise and idea for profiles but nothing more. Its not useful for NYPL to increase its physical engagement, and thats fine. Kinda a fun reason to use instagram though, see what a profile is up to.

Sidenote: I’ve inadvertently joined book clubs just because a meme account started shilling a book and then started posting memes about the book