World Book Day observed
- Today, April 23, is World Book and Copyright Day, celebrated globally under UNESCO's banner. (news18.com) - The day promotes reading, literacy, and copyright, and names Rabat as the current World Book Capital. (bankersadda.com) - Coverage also pushed simple habits like replacing 30 minutes of scrolling with reading to boost focus and wellbeing. (indiatvnews.com)
World Book and Copyright Day is being observed on Wednesday, April 23, with UNESCO using the annual date to promote reading, publishing and copyright protection. (unesco.org) UNESCO says the observance was proclaimed by its General Conference in 1995, and it fixed April 23 as a symbolic date in world literature tied to Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. (unesco.org) The agency’s World Book Capital program is also in focus this year: Rabat was named World Book Capital for 2026 in an announcement made on October 8, 2024, following Rio de Janeiro’s turn in 2025. (unesco.org) UNESCO says the one-year World Book Capital designation is awarded to a city that commits to programs promoting books and reading for all age groups, with attention to access, literacy and the work of authors and publishers. (unesco.org) The copyright part of the day is not ceremonial. UNESCO frames the observance around both access to books and protection for the people who write, translate and publish them. (unesco.org; unesco.org) The reading push lands as health agencies keep warning about unhealthy digital habits. The World Health Organization’s Europe office reported in September 2024 that 11% of adolescents showed signs of problematic social media behavior in 2022, up from 7% in 2018. (who.int) That same World Health Organization report said 36% of young people were in constant contact with friends online, while 12% were at risk of problematic gaming and 34% played digital games daily. (who.int) United States data point in a similar direction. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published in 2025 linked four or more hours of daily non-school screen time among teenagers with worse outcomes across sleep, physical activity, mental health and perceived support. (cdc.gov) Research summaries do not treat all screen use as identical. An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report said people spending more than two hours a day on personal screens were more likely to report poorer well-being, but it also said sleep, exercise and loneliness were stronger predictors. (oecd.org) So the annual April 23 observance now sits at the intersection of culture and daily habits: a UNESCO-backed campaign for books, and a public-health argument for carving out time away from feeds and alerts. (unesco.org; who.int)
