Hindustan Times ·
This country is paying people to read books to fight ‘brain rot’
It takes 50 days of reading to earn SG$1, assuming participants complete one qualifying session every day. So, the programme isn't going to make anyone rich.
What if you could earn money simply by picking up a book and reading for 15 minutes a day? Singapore is giving its citizens a reason to swap some of their doomscrolling time for reading, with a new government-backed initiative that rewards them for logging their reading minutes.
The city-state launched the ReadSG campaign, a five-year national programme aimed at nurturing reading habits. Introduced by the country's National Library Board (NLB) earlier this month.
The idea is straightforward: read a little every day, track your progress on a government website and collect rewards along the way.
The initiative comes amid concerns about shrinking attention spans and the growing popularity of short-form digital content. Singapore's 2024 National Reading Habits Study identified a broader shift towards content that is short and easy to skim, rather than the sustained reading that requires deeper concentration.