Read Books and Get Paid: Singapore Comes Up With an Unusual Way to Save Citizens From Social Media

Singapore has started paying citizens to read books for at least 15 minutes a day in an effort to combat the spread of doomscrolling — the habit of endlessly scrolling through news feeds and social media, the Guardian reports.

The wealthy city-state hopes the gamified program, launched this month, will help residents improve their concentration, critical thinking and imagination.

Participants earn points that can later be exchanged for small cash rewards. To earn one Singapore dollar — around $0.80 — participants must register 50 daily reading sessions on a government website. Each session lasting at least 15 minutes earns 20 virtual coins, while 1,000 coins are required to receive $1. No more than one reading session per day counts toward the reward.

Melissa Tam, head of Singapore’s National Library Board, said that sustainable reading habits are best developed through small, achievable steps.

“We live in a world of incredible abundance — of content, information and all kinds of stimulation. At any moment, we can scroll through hundreds of headlines, watch videos or get a quick summary of almost anything,” she told the Straits Times.

“We know that habits are formed through small but consistent actions. So we’re starting with a simple goal: just read for 15 minutes a day. On the bus, before bed or over lunch.”

The Singapore government is also exploring ways to make social media less harmful to young people, including introducing daily limits on how much time they can spend on social platforms. A recent study found that doomscrolling and social media addiction are among the most common forms of harmful social media use affecting young people.

For Singapore, using financial incentives to encourage behavioral change is nothing unusual. Under previous healthy-lifestyle initiatives, for example, the government has offered shopping vouchers for taking part in walking routes and prizes for people who met daily step-count targets.

At the same time, concerns about declining interest in reading appear somewhat paradoxical given the results of an international assessment. Singaporean 15-year-old students recently ranked first in the world for reading literacy in the PISA 2025 assessment, ahead of students from China and Taiwan.