Leaving Certificate Students Return...Love Books

When Leaving Cert Students Return to School—Can We Get Them Off Reels and Into Real Reads?

Welcome back, Leaving Cert survivors! As school kicks off this week across Ireland (hello again, senior cycle!), the challenge isn't just remembering your locker code, it’s prying your teenagers’ eyes off the glowing TikTok and YouTube vortex and steering them toward the printed page instead.

The Screen Strikes Back

Smartphones are not innocent bystanders. They’re brain-hijacking attention bandits. A recent study across Ireland and the UK found nearly three‑quarters of students admit their phone habits hinder study, while over 75% reported negative effects on mental health. Sleep disruption and feeling “disconnected from real-life experiences” were especially common (KSBY News).

TikTok-style reels are particularly pernicious. One 2025 study determined that rapid, infinite-scroll content can erode attention spans and derail students’ ability to sustain focus during longer tasks (Preprints). Meanwhile, experimental findings show that short-form video feeds like TikTok or Instagram, significantly impair prospective memory, undermining students’ ability to remember tasks set before a distraction (arXiv).

So, sorry to say: brain rot is real.

Page-Turners Versus Page-Swipes

We’re not just nostalgic book-lovers here at ShadowScript. Research finds that comprehension from physical books is six to eight times better than from e-readers. Why? Because turning pages creates a spatial “index” in the brain that cements the memory of what you read (www.ofcom.org.uk, Psychology Today). Beyond that, reading printed literature such as novels, poetry, serious nonfiction, gives your brain a breather. It encourages deeper vocabulary, richer thought, and calmer engagement than the dopamine-fueled flick of a thumb down a screen (Psychology Today).

What Literature Does to the Soul

Let's talk emotional and psychological muscles. Social media and short-form feed bingeing has been connected with anxiety, especially in girls. One study reported that girls who spend five or more hours a day on social media are three times more likely to be depressed than peers who don’t use it (The Guardian). Reading, especially real books, is the antidote. It’s like emotional yoga for the mind. It improves empathy, self-awareness, reduces stress, and supports better mental health (though exact figures vary, the consensus across the literature is clear).

Back to School, Back to Books

So, how do we ease students off the reels and back into real reading?

Lead by example. Teachers and parents start the trend. Share what you're reading and why it matters.
Helmet the habits. Create short, intentional reading routines. 4 p.m. with a paperback, away from screens.
Reward real engagement. Use gamified reading challenges or contests to build momentum (similar to the Indian reading‐contest model that sustained engagement weeks afterward) (arXiv).
Tech with purpose. Encourage using screens for long-form learning content and not constant scrolling.

Wrapping up 
Leaving Certs: You’ve survived the prep, and now the real battle is staying mentally resilient in a world engineered to distract you. Books aren’t old-school. They’re your brain’s secret weapon. You need to nourish it. 

 
References
Kushwaha, R. (2024). A study on the adverse effects of social media on young people's reading habits. International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews, 5(5), 3543–3546. (Psychology Today, ResearchGate)
Opara, E., Adalikwu, T. M., & Tolorunleke, C. A. (2025). The impact of TikTok’s fast‑paced content on attention span of students. Preprints. (Preprints)
Chiossi, F., Haliburton, L., Ou, C., Butz, A., & Schmidt, A. (2023). Short‑form videos degrade our capacity to retain intentions: Effect of context switching on prospective memory. arXiv. (arXiv)
Altamura, L., Vargas, C., & Salmerón, L. (2023). The case for paper: Books vs. e‑readers. Psychology Today. (Psychology Today)
Research firm Fluid Focus. (2025, June 23). Students on track to spend 25 years of their lifetime on phones, study warns. KSYB News. (KSBY News)
Agrawal, K., Athey, S., Kanodia, A., & Palikot, E. (2023). Digital interventions and habit formation in educational technology. arXiv. (arXiv)