I have never read a book in my life. I might as well be illiterate, and most people around me might as well be too. Most libraries are vacant, and bookstores are gone. But all these people are doing fine - we put anything down on paper, and despite its incoherence it seems fine by standards that have stooped for reasons I do not know. I can turn in something that makes absolutely no sense, and an instructor from a decent school will tell me that he enjoyed it. Or an instructor won’t enjoy it, but since most people don’t write anything comprehensible anymore I’ll still be fine. I can cruise through my education and get a job while barely having read much at all. Everyone frequents some variant of flimsy entertainment - cable news, cartoons, social media - so why bother trying to read anything worthwhile anyways if nobody else is? Does reading actually make you more curious, more intelligent, more human?
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Notes -
So, at the end of the day this stuff is all subjective. But I think you're making a mistake by thinking in terms of things like "How can you spend a bunch of time analyzing someone else's thoughts when you can just go outside or look at something dumb on the internet that's probably more entertaining right off the bat?". I actually don't think swiping through dumb shit on the internet is more entertaining, even at first. It's just lower effort. It's easy to find content that is "good enough", and lots of it. Whereas with a book you may take a few tries to find one that interests you, or you might have a book which takes a while to get good.
But make no mistake, I've read books that were incredible right off the bat. Lots of authors can set up an interesting story hook in the opening pages of the book which keeps you curious to know more. It's not like those don't exist. But they aren't every book, for sure.
All that said, all things aren't for all people. Like, some people will say that they love exercising and that it's addictive. Me, I have never found that to be the case and I think it's pure suffering (albeit necessary suffering). Or, some people (most people even) think babies are cute. I personally think babies are ugly as hell, and can't understand what people see in them. So maybe you're wired to not like books the way I'm wired to not like exercise or babies. It's OK. But if that's the case, I think you should at least recognize "it's not for me but others enjoy it", rather than asking questions that make it come off as though you think book readers are suffering when they spend time reading.
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