Our 14-year-old has enjoyed reading that dates back to his days in kindergarten ‘Storytime’ at the local library. While many of his friends and classmates are busy sharing funny videos, memes and pictures, I have been encouraging him to digitize his passion for books - a YouTube channel, where he has been posting a book review every week.
He has been reading and posting reviews for nearly two years (over 100 vLOG review) but is now starting to question this ‘niche’ activity since social media is all about likes and upvotes. Dance and silly prank videos posted by his peers generate thousands of views and dozens of comments, likes and upvotes while his book reviews remain ‘bookish’ - just a few views and fewer upvotes.
While some teachers and adults praise him for this pursuit, he doesn’t have a ‘club’ of interested peers and finds this a lonely activity. My fear is that he will soon stop posting review and worse yet stop reading!
Any ideas and tips to encourage him and keep him going?
Best thing you can do is enjoy reading yourself. My nephews love reading because their parents and myself (aunt) and grandparents all love reading and do so for fun. They see us enjoying it and naturally want to enjoy it too.
You don’t want him thinking this is something he should do just to please you. Stop pressuring him to post online. If he wants to, great, but don’t make this about what you want. That’s not a way to get anyone interested in anything.