I’m only 23 lol so I’m not sure I qualify for such an old man comment but I’m glad to see younger kids getting into reading. Especially young men (which I don’t know if you are lol, just saying) who statistically are really reading way way way less these days.
As a young guy who loves reading after getting into it when I first went to college, I’ve gotten five of my guy friends to start reading and they all love it now but beforehand they literally never even considered it as possible entertainment.
Literature is such a unique media form because it relies so much on your own imagination, I really think if people give it a chance they see its value. Problem is people just get assigned books in school and have to make annotations and notes and it just turns it into work instead of leisure. I think a lot of people these days, especially men from what it seems, continue to associate it simply with work and not entertainment.
What genre fiction even fits the description you’re painting there lol, just seems like a strawman. Feels more like a manifestation of your personal dislike of people who like genre fiction or something.