As someone who loves books, it bugs me when people question that love. You too should be reading, whether you know it or not. And you just may learn to love it like I do. My passion for reading, for instance, stems from the types of worlds it opens.

So, you haters of the written word out there, first let me highlight a few of the major scientific benefits in putting your nose inside a book, according to realsimple.com.

• Reading helps to improve your brain functions. It’s been shown that those who read or stimulate their brains from a younger age are not as likely to suffer from their memory degrading.

• Reading is also beneficial if you find yourself unable to sleep at night (though, I recommend if you’re trying to sleep, please don’t read a book you’re totally invested in, as you may be too infatuated with the text to actually fall asleep).

• Last but not least, reading can help push back Alzheimer’s disease! Alzheimer’s isn’t something any of us wants to end up with. This should be enough incentive to pick up a book.

The journey we experience while reading is incomparable to anything else. The worlds hidden inside the text are the biggest benefits. You get to meet characters who are—more often than not—in the same/similar situations as you, and to be able to relate to those characters is a payoff by itself. Plus, reading is a great platform to discover new inspirations.

On the flip side, people choose not to read for many reasons. Some claim that reading is boring, because who wants to stare at text on a page for over an hour? They also say that reading is a solitary activity keeping you isolated from other people. Or they never liked reading from a young age, since they just never really got into it. Now, all of these points, while reasonable, can be rebutted.

A lot of people, as I mentioned before, either strongly dislike reading or simply choose not to, but enjoy watching shows on Netflix and other streaming websites. So, when binging on Netflix, we get attached to the characters and plot/sub-plots of the show in a matter of seconds or minutes. Some of us have already sold our hearts and souls after the first episode—I have on many separate occasions. And, while reading offers the same exact thing, others prefer the speed at which character development and plot unravelment occurs on television.

The downside of this: TV has been proven to foster shorter attention spans in children. Episodes are clipped up into shorter segments, which doesn’t require longer attention, whereas reading does—which makes sense. Why don’t you increase your attention span tonight by opening a book?

“Although some people don’t like reading,” said BHS senior Mariah Plakas, “literature actually helps people’s minds work, rather than their binging on Netflix. It’s possible to get so emotionally invested into a TV episode, but most of the time, people just stare blankly at the screen.”

BHS senior Morgan Appleton said, “Reading is actually really important, seeing as it helps with your comprehension of other things.”

So, while most of us are sitting in bed binging on shows over the weekend, it doesn’t hurt to stick your nose in a book every once in awhile. Reading really does make us smarter.