I think the "problem" is that nowadays you are forced to get on the computer as soon as you are at home, because your friends are too. You know that feeling that you would miss something if you wouldn't go online and start Facebook?
I think it could work if you and your friends made like a deal that you all read a book for the next few weeks instead of chatting about any senseless shit.
It's the same with learning for school. Some people actually want to learn for school but then again their friends are like "hey why haven't you been online yesterday at 10 PM, there was this crazy story...". This even goes with sleeping since I know quite a lot people who are at their computer until 1 AM at school days, just because they get any random news every few minutes.

I for myself didn't read many books yet, but I know that I'm going to get some books for my birthday if I just wish them. I mean, what kind of parents wouldn't buy their children books xD
By looking at my avatar you can guess what books I would like to read. I have seen some movies but in every comment of other people who have seen the movies you could see that the books are a bit different and worth reading.
I'm not going to tell anyone in my class though, because most of them would just be like "what the hell is wrong with you?! Are you ill or something?"

New generation has less of a reason to read books with all the new technologies, and let's face it, books aren't really interesting nowadays. There are no new writers doing any works, the last two teen books that actually got readers were the Twilight series and the Harry Potter series. Since then, nothing. Everything that could possibly be book with is being created movie wise, and with my new iPad Touch 5000 what would I need books for?

tl;dr - The only time a teenager will read a book is for an assignment in school, or because it's really really good.

Not everyone likes to read.
How is that a problem?

"not ny of dis sht" <- I could understand this perfectly, and I read. I am fluent in correct English, + slang/txt speak 2... (not being able to speak slang is far worse than not knowing formal English)

For reference I am currently reading some books by Page-Jones, Hunt and Thomas, and Gamma, Helm, Johnson and Vlissides.

Most people won't read because they can get what many get from books, from other sources that require less effort. Also, if they want information they can usually find it on the internet or in video format. They even made books easier with audiobooks. My sister doesn't read unless it has to do with school and she needs to write an essay on it, so I decided to buy her books for her birthday. If she doesn't read them then at least I tried, but if she does then she might learn something and may even learn to enjoy reading enough to want to start doing so more often.

The next time you are taught something valuable from playing X-Box and jerking off, tell me. Books, maybe not it a large way, expand a persons vocabulary. And fictional or not, you can learn plenty about the world from a book. I don't see how you would know, I guarantee you don't read ever. I have played enough X-Box to know I wasn't taught much from it, maybe a bit of driving from Dirt 3 but that's about it.

Goreman:
"Slang/txt speak" isn't a language. It's just kids being lazy.

Sunny:
I'm not against reading from tablets or anything like that. It's the fact kids don't read period. And it's true, Twilight and Harry Potter were the only big boom for kids these days. And those books were awful, and that's my opinion. But when you say no one is making new books, you're wrong. Dean Koontz still writes, and I enjoy his work. And even if they weren't still writing, what does it matter? It's not like you're going to read every single book from your favorite author anytime soon. And if you do congrats. You win. Find some more books you like and read. It's far more ethical than playing computer games 24/7. And to make it clear.

Not to sound corny or anything.

But reading a good book always takes me away deep into thought... Like meditating... It's always calming to just escape the word, and get back my wonderous imagination from when I was a youngling.

Only time I read is if I want to learn something. Anything apart from that is a waste of time imo.
I have this MUY GIGANTE book on computer languages that I read when I want to. Anything else other than that book (novels, movies etc) is completely irrelivant to my learning, and is thusly deemed "a distraction".

30 years ago, you would be smart to jump in a pool of books and learn as much as you could, for convenience's sake as well as a hobby and bragging rights. Nowadays however, reading is simply unnecessary. You could go through an encyclopedia to find out how king John the 9001st died, or you could go to your convenient tool bar, on a place that you're most likely either on or a click away from, type in "king john 9001", and in a couple of seconds you will be looking at a detailed explanation of how he died.

also lol@how access to knowledge restricts what someone learns to their immediate needs

E: as to reading as a hobby. Intense action sells more than words, it takes some to get a person to enjoy reading where you could be beating a tree with another tree in Prototype or running through a field with a ball

Well for my english class we are required to read AT LEAST 25 300 + page novels and i usually do about 2 in the year because books are just so fucking boring! and somehow i still pass the class :o

I'm 13 and I enjoy reading books, but I'm very fussy about them so I've not fully read many books, very little in fact. I don't really know if many kids in my English group enjoy reading books, but I can see some showing my teacher the books they're reading sometimes, and they seem to read a lot. As I said, I'm fussy, but once I find a good book, I absolutely love reading it.