Everybody loves Heartstopper. The LGBTQ+ drama released its third season yesterday. It depicts the growing love between two teenagers, as well as the stories of their school friends.

Critics have praised its sensitive storytelling and handling of teen issues, and its nostalgic lens. It has even taught some adult viewers about themselves. As Metro's Adam Miller writes: "I've waited 36 years for the sex education Heartstopper's given me."

Literature was once our main medium for telling stories. Victorians rushed to read the latest instalments of Charles Dickens's serialised stories. In the late 20th Century, readers eagerly awaited new novels by their favourite writers.

Television was regarded as inferior, an "idiot box". But times have changed. In the 21st Century, it is seen as a respectable way to tell stories.

It is also very popular. Heartstopper season two was watched for 55.5 million hours in its first three weeks, two million more than the first series.

Books cannot compete. After winning the Booker PrizeOne of the most high-profile literary prizes for novels in the English language.,¹ Paul Lynch's Prophet Song became Britain and Ireland's most-sold novel of 2023. It ended the year with 45,501 sales² - nothing when compared with the number of people who tune into big TV crime dramas.³ 

Word game website WordsRated finds that the average person watches TV for about two hours and 51 minutes each day, but reads for no more than 16 minutes and 48 seconds.⁴

This is part of a general trend away from writing. According to Forbes in 2018, 91% now prefer interactive and visual content over written material.

Even teachers have moved away from books. The Atlantic reports: "Many students no longer arrive at college prepared to read books." Literature professor Nicholas Dames found that some students had never been made to study an entire book in school.

Yet many still think that books remain superior to television. Poet Adam Kirsch believes that novels are more inventive, varied and realistic than TV. 

He writes: "Television was so bad for so long, it's no surprise that the arrival of good television has caused the culture to lose its head a bit."

Reading has effects that video can not reproduce. One study found that people who read 30 pages of a book each night have more left temporal activityActivity in the dominant side of the brain's temporal lobe, the side responsible for many functions, including language, memory and emotions. in their brain. This can reduce our stress and the risk of dementiaA syndrome associated with memory loss and other declining brain functions. , and improve our memory.⁷

Is TV the new literature?

Yes: We tend to assume that things are forever. But literature was new once, beating oral traditions to become our great storytelling tool. Now it too will be replaced in turn by something newer.

No: They are very different. We absorb television passively. But literature requires our active imagination. And Heartstopper began life as a book after all.

Or... The golden age of the novel has long gone, but peak TV has also drawn to an end. The new way of telling stories is more participatory, through TikTok videos, Instagram reels and interactive games.

Booker Prize - One of the most high-profile literary prizes for novels in the English language.

Left temporal activity - Activity in the dominant side of the brain's temporal lobe, the side responsible for many functions, including language, memory and emotions.

Dementia - A syndrome associated with memory loss and other declining brain functions.