This country is paying its people to read. Can it stop brain rot?

(CNN) — Whether it’s while waiting for the train or chilling solo at a cafe, a tiny nation in Southeast Asia is nudging its people toward an increasingly elusive habit: reading.

Singapore this month launched a novel five-year national campaign to nurture reading habits, with incentives including small payments to citizens who log their reading minutes on a government website.

Officials are betting, the gamification strategy – using a points system to track the habit for a modest reward – and a sense of public participation can help to restore a habit being fast replaced by brain rot-inducing doomscrolling.

“While short-form content helps us stay informed, long-form reading strengthens attention, critical thinking and imagination,” the National Library Board’s chief Melissa Tam said in a statement.

“Ultimately, we want to see a nation of readers who are curious, thoughtful, discerning and equipped to navigate an increasingly complex world.”

The scheme won’t make bookworms rich though, with 50 days of reading sessions needed to earn one SG$1 ($0.8). A session of 15 minutes or more earns readers 20 virtual coins, and readers need to collect 1,000 coins to get the dollar payment. Only one session can be logged per day.

The unique program comes at a time when attention spans are shrinking and reading habits are declining worldwide. Educators are struggling to battle “brain rot” –– a perceived decline in our cognitive abilities blamed on consuming too much shallow content online –– and doomscrolling.

Latest global rankings last week showed reading scores among 15-year-olds in the United States have plunged while Asian nations like Singapore and China are doing remarkably well. The study the highlighted one challenge as higher digital distraction in the classroom.

Gamifying reading and transforming it into a habit is the crux of Singapore’s initiative, said Loh Chin Ee from the country’s National Institute of Education.

“For somebody who reads a lot, 15 minutes might feel very short, but I think it is a nice, sweet spot,” Loh, who researches reading habits, told CNN.

“What has happened is that many people still do read when you talk about reading words on a screen. But the kind of deep reading, spending time and being committed to reading may occur less often.”

Reading beyond school

While Singapore remains a global standout in reading scores, there are concerns students lose steam in reading when they start preparing for bigger exams as they advance through the grades.

A risk analyst in Singapore who reads a lot of technical reports and news stories for his work believes young students lose the joy of reading when they reach secondary school.

“I think during your teenage years, it can be quite stressful,” Isaac Neo, 32, said.

“There are a lot of big examinations and you start to read only for what you’re being tested on. And then, slowly you lose the habit of reading for leisure.”

When Neo realized he had not picked up a book in years since starting his career, he co-founded the Modern Men’s Book Club in 2025.

“I’ve spoken to quite a few people who say that’s their motivation: to pick up reading again as a habit because they haven’t done it for so long,” he said.

Neo says his book club members tell him they haven’t read a book in ages and that now they’re even veering into genres they wouldn’t have in the past.

The earn-as-you-read push is in a pilot phase till the end of the year “with new features and enhancements to come based on feedback,” the NLB has said. Readers also can take part in a charity drive which the organization hopes can garner 7.5 million reading minutes to raise up to $118,300 (SG$150,000) this year.

Debating literary currency

The scheme has sparked debate in the affluent city-state over whether cash can truly cultivate a lifelong love for books. Some critics say people should be reading for the love of reading.

Others say anything that gets people to read in an age of hyper distraction can’t be that bad.

“I would rather see people reading and miss their train stop or their bus stop than hear the constant sounds of TikTok and AI-generated Chinese dramas being blasted on the train,” Charmaine Lim, a 28-year-old book and lifestyle content creator in Singapore told CNN.

Ashley Chia, who runs a book club, believes the definition of success must reflect a bigger chapter.

“I like the whole idea of making reading habitual and giving people a small nudge to begin,” she said.

“If Singapore wants to build a reading culture, perhaps success isn’t only that people read for 15 minutes a day, it’s also that we become more curious readers. We read outside what is immediately available to us, or immediately useful to us.”

There is, however, a body of research suggesting that monetary incentives can reduce a person’s natural desire to continue a behavior once the reward disappears.

“Monetary rewards work well for people who are already somewhat interested in reading, but for those with no existing interest at all, cash incentives may be a hard sell for cultivating a lasting, intrinsic motivation to read,” said Charissa Ng, principal clinical psychologist at Putra Star Care in Singapore.

Whether small cash rewards can outpace algorithm-driven dopamine remains to be seen. In a country that’s found success with national campaigns – from public cleanliness to encouraging courtesy – a light nudge and a little reward might just be enough to get people to turn the page.

The-CNN-Wire
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