”First of all, I think about books” : A qualitative study of teenagers perceptions of reading as a phenomena

The purpose of this study is to examine teenagers perceptions of the phenomena reading, for example perceptions of reading as an activity and young people’s reading, in order to assess how reading can be understood from their point of view. This essay presents one concept of value – the definition of teenagers – and since the setting of the study is Swedish, the context of the research presents young people’s reading from a Swedish point of view followed up by international research with the same focus upon young people and/or young people’s reading, apart from reading as a concept. The research material consists of semistructured interviews with six teenagers, all six between the age of 16 and 18 years. The study is qualitative and phenomenographic, where the theory foremost provides an analytic model to present the result. The result shows that teenagers perceptions of reading is, in first hand associated with being seen as fiction and printed books, and in second hand so much more. The perceptions of reading is in one way dependent on how they see reading as an activity, where they value themselves as readers, and their own reading, according to their view on what reading is. Reading is percepted as foremost inividual, where digital reading and specifically reading taking place on social media, is the general common reading among young people. The conclusion is that young people’s reading foremost can be understood as individual.