Singapore Offers Cash Incentives to Get People Reading Again

Singapore has launched an unconventional initiative to encourage people to put down their phones and pick up books during idle moments—whether they are waiting for a train or spending time alone at a café.

Under a new five-year national reading program, residents can earn rewards by logging their reading time on a government website. The initiative is designed not simply to increase the amount of time people spend reading, but also to counter the growing habit of spending hours consuming shallow and endless content on social media.

The program is being viewed as an experimental response to what has recently been described as “brain rot”—a term used to refer to perceived declines in attention and cognitive engagement associated with excessive consumption of low-value online content.

Melissa Tam, head of Singapore’s National Library Board, said short-form digital content can help people access information quickly, but sustained reading can strengthen attention, critical thinking and imagination. The broader goal, she said, is to cultivate a society of readers who are curious, thoughtful and discerning, and better equipped to understand an increasingly complex world and make informed decisions.

Read for 15 Minutes, Earn Points

The program is not designed to make participants rich. Instead, its primary purpose is to encourage people to establish a consistent reading habit.

Participants who read for at least 15 minutes a day can earn 20 virtual coins. Only one reading session per day can be counted. Once participants accumulate 1,000 coins, they can redeem them for S$1.

At that rate, someone who reads for at least 15 minutes every day would need 50 days to earn S$1.

The initiative is currently being run as a pilot program, with its progress scheduled to be monitored through the end of the year. Authorities plan to introduce new features and make adjustments based on feedback from participants.

Participants can also contribute their reading time to a charitable initiative. This year, organizers have set a target of 7.5 million minutes of reading, with the goal of raising as much as S$150,000 through the program.

Reading Habits Declining Worldwide

Singapore’s initiative comes at a time when concerns are growing globally about declining attention spans and falling reading habits. Educators and researchers have expressed particular concern about children and teenagers becoming increasingly dependent on digital devices.

People are increasingly drawn to rapidly changing videos, short posts and other bite-sized online content. At the same time, “doomscrolling”—the habit of continuously consuming online content without a specific purpose—has become part of everyday life for many people.

Experts warn that these habits can make it harder to sustain attention on books, lengthy texts and complex subjects for extended periods.

Recent international education assessments have also highlighted concerns about declining reading performance among 15-year-old students. Singapore and China, however, continue to perform relatively strongly compared with many other countries. Even so, researchers have identified growing distraction caused by digital technology in classrooms as a significant challenge.

More Than Reading—Developing Deep Reading Habits

Loh Chin Ee, a researcher at Singapore’s National Institute of Education, said the central objective of the initiative is to turn reading into a regular habit.

For people who already read regularly, 15 minutes may seem like a very short period. But for those who have not opened a book in years, she said, a daily 15-minute target could provide a realistic starting point.

People still read extensively, Loh noted, particularly on phones and computers. What is declining, however, is the habit of reading deeply, spending time thinking about what has been read and maintaining a sustained commitment to reading.

Academic Pressure Keeps Young People Away From Books

Although Singapore is one of the world’s strongest-performing education systems, there are concerns that students become less interested in reading for pleasure as they progress into secondary school.

As pressure builds around major examinations, education can become increasingly exam-oriented, leaving less room for reading simply for enjoyment.

Isaac Neo, a 32-year-old risk analyst in Singapore, said academic pressure rises significantly during adolescence. As students prepare for major examinations, they tend to focus almost exclusively on subjects they expect to encounter in tests. Over time, he said, they can lose the habit of reading books for pleasure.

Neo experienced something similar after entering the workforce. After realizing that he had gone years without reading books, he founded the Modern Men’s Book Club in 2025.

Many members, he said, have told him they had not read books for years and joined the club because they wanted to rebuild the habit. Some have also developed an interest in genres they previously would not have considered reading.

Can Money Create a Love of Reading?

The Singapore government’s initiative has also sparked debate over whether financial rewards can genuinely create a lifelong love of reading.

Critics argue that people should read because they enjoy books, rather than because they are being paid. If the financial rewards disappear, they say, the reading habit could disappear with them.

Others argue that in an era dominated by digital entertainment, any measure that encourages people to return to books is worthwhile.

Singapore-based book and lifestyle content creator Charmaine Lim said getting absorbed in a book to the point of missing a train or bus stop would still be preferable to spending that time watching TikTok videos or AI-generated content.

Ashley Chia, who runs a book club, said encouraging people to read for at least 15 minutes a day is a good starting point. But the success of the initiative should not be measured solely by the number of minutes people read. It should also consider whether participants become more curious and engaged readers.

Questions Over the Long-Term Impact of Financial Rewards

Some psychologists have cautioned about the long-term effects of financial incentives. Research has suggested that when people are regularly rewarded for a behavior, their intrinsic motivation to continue that behavior can