Millennials were born in the early 1980s through the mid-1990s to early 2000s. The generation is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media and digital technologies. They have been educated in the world of modern formats. They read differently than previous generations, seeking information in short bites. This is due to the pace of their lives and modern screen-based information delivery.
Consider the fast paced life they run. They are constantly bombarded by information. A hundred emails a day is not unusual. Their children are learning more than they did, so their parents struggle to keep up. The kids are constantly in activities. And their employers expect them to work long hours. So Millennials’ lives are dominated by go-go-go and know-know-know. There is so little time, they merely scan what they read, looking for small bites of information that tell them if they want to dig in and delve deeper.
Scannability Is Key
If they cannot scan something and see what it is with a glance, they are likely to bypass it. They are not used to reading text as it is formatted in Bibles, paragraph after paragraph of plain text. They are used to having some understanding of what follows before they start reading. That understanding can come from the format of the information.
One might even say Millennials don’t know how to approach a book that can’t be scanned, one of text alone. In my opinion, a Bible designed for Boomers and earlier generations will lose millions of Millennial readers. People who design with them in mind do not produce pages of plain text. They are concerned with what the Millennial reader visualizes, the mental image created by the whole two-page spread. The “Dummies” series of “how-to” books has been fabulously successful because it uses modern formats. The biblical text needs to be presented that way.
The Problem With Plain Text Bibles in a Digital Age
Previous generations were educated in a word of plain text. They learned to work through it. The current Bibles being sold were created for plain-text readers, generations born prior to 1980. As the years progress, we are losing more and more readers due to the plain-paragraph style of most Bibles.
Using modern formats makes it easier for people to read, comprehend and remember Scripture. When people browse The Readable Bible, instead of being put off by 2,000 pages of plain text, they are invited in by tables, charts, specification documents, drawings and cascading text.
According to millennialmarketing.com, Millennials prefer easily scannable reading material with good design and page layout. When people browse The Readable Bible, instead of being put off by 2,000 pages of plain text, they are invited in by tables, charts, specification documents, drawings and cascading text. It is truly a modern-day Bible with an timeless message.
It is my hope that The Readable Bible will make it easier for Millennials to read and understand the Bible.
The Readable Bible Blog 