The future of reading is social
Since the beginning of time, stories have been social, a connection point if you will, for conversation and social interaction. From stories read aloud to children in local villages to open readings of the torah or bible in faith communities — the reading of stories has always been social and has brought people together to hear and talk about characters, morals, lessons, symbols and everything in between. This social fabric has been like a thread, weaving cultures, communities, friends and strangers together.
There are so many examples of reading’s social origins and evolution but one worth digging into is the emergence and rise of book clubs. It’s hard to say for certain when book clubs first started but there are a number of social moments and triggers that took place during that time. What’s most interesting to know is why. What drove and continues to drive the creation and growth of book clubs and this social reading experience? We can find clues in history’s examples. In the 1930’s the Parisian salons provided a space for informal education amongst women. The Women’s Reading Clubs of the late 19th century gave spaces for solidarity and the sharing of ideas within social, political challenges of the time. In the 20th Century book clubs unlocked earning potential for hosts, Harry Scherman launched his Book of the Month Club in 1926 where he sent collections of books to people’s home via a monthly subscription.
In more modern times more and more book clubs have being going online and been zoomed (even pre-pandemic). These few examples show us the many dynamic sides of social reading experiences, it shows us the meta-verse possibilities within social reading itself. My own view is that books are vehicles for entertainment or education. And like any other form of entertainment (movies, music, sports etc) and education (lectures, online courses, Ted talks etc) we like to discuss them, enjoy them with others and create memories and shared experiences. All of us are somewhere on this social gradient.
Books are a global medium for absorbing stories. According to GFK, 59% of internet users read books every day or at least once a week. In America alone 25% of adults had read at least one e-book within the last 12 months (2020). Roll back to 2007 with the introduction of the Kindle, which arguably made e-books mainstream, we witnessed great innovation and strides forward for the everyday reader but unknowingly left something pivotal behind — reading’s social origins.
This isn’t anything new. We can find insight from parallel industries such as gaming. Arcades began in the 1930’s and brought kids and adults alike together around games, socialising IRL, sharing tricks and tips, competing to beat each other’s high scores, discussing the origins of characters and shortcuts in levels. Then came the video game console, a great invention which brought gaming to the front seats of our homes, yet, like the book’s evolution, left a foundational piece of the experience behind — it’s social layers.
The first wave of video game consoles could be seen as gaming’s equivalent of the e-book, yet the gaming industry has continuously been redeeming itself. Today when we look at gaming’s evolution, we see it shifting back to its original social roots by making gaming social through online multiplayer modes, live chat, live streaming, even e-sports. What’s more interesting, when you dive deeper, you find the games that are most social in design (Fortnite, Roblox, Call of Duty, Minecraft) are the games that are most accessible and most played. Who would have foreseen their own mothers skydiving into custom 3D worlds amongst teens, 20’s and 30 year olds! Thank you Fortnite. I believe reading is on the same evolutionary trajectory. E-readers made reading ‘single player’. Chaperone will make reading ‘multiplayer’.
It is worth saying, it is 100% legitimate to want to have moments where we read alone, after-all reading is entertainment and much like a movie sometimes we want a quiet night in and other times we want to watch with others or go to the cinema. It is this legitimacy that makes space for a social reading app like Chaperone. Chaperone simply provides readers choice, read alone or read and enjoy stories through an array of social layers. A helpful parallel takes us back to gaming. Gamers have the option to play FIFA in single-player career mode or online with friends, strangers and live chat, they have a choice. Readers should have a similar choice, and I see a future where every reader can choose to read an e-book alone, socially via Chaperone or even in a physical book — then come back to Chaperone to talk about it over audio with others.
I started working on Chaperone because of my own reading. I was reading Garden City by John Mark Comer and was really impacted by the idea and concepts and thought to myself “I wish I could connect with someone who had read all of it and transformed their life”. I went to sleep and woke up having had a dream of ‘guided book clubs’ by experts. I shared this idea online with other founders and, through feedback, refined the idea so that rather than hearing insights from one person, you have conversations and learn from multiple people’s notes and ideas. Chaperone is just that, a social-first reading app coming to iOS and Android.
If you love books, you can follow the journey with Chaperone by signing up and pre-saving your username at the same time.
You can find me on twitter @aogunbowale and working on Chaperone
