Influence of Covid-19 Lockdown on Reading Habit of Nigerians: A Case Study of Lagos State Inhabitants

Abstract

The recent pandemic disease, COVID-19, brought about a measure that involves every individual staying at home in Nigeria. This had various effects on different activities and habits of an average Nigerian. This study examined the influence of COVID-19 lockdown on reading habit of Nigerians using Lagos State inhabitants as case study. Descriptive survey design was adopted and simple random sampling technique was used. Web-based questionnaire was adopted to collect data for the study owing to the risk paper questionnaire could pose. The Cronbach's Alpha Reliability coefficient is 0.80. Total response collected for the study is 416. It was found that there was significant improvement in the reading habit of Nigerians during the lockdown. It was revealed that most Nigerians used phone to read during the lockdown. It was shown that more than half of the respondents had challenges in reading during the lockdown, which include cost of resources, non-availability of resources, lack of motivation, and heavy usage of social media. It was concluded that COVID-19 lockdown has a positive influence on reading habits of Nigerians. It is recommended that Nigerians should imbibe the reading habit of seeing readership as a pleasurable activity to do just like entertainment. It was further recommended that Nigerians should not reverse on their significantly improved reading hours during post-lockdown.