Do your friends, family or colleagues read your work?

[Myword]

   Most everyone  says that they will read my published articles, or popular stuff, and never do. True all my life. They are being nice or courteous and never follow through. Hypocritical or just insincere? Includes intellectual friends, even in my field.  My family has absolutely no interest or knowledge of it.. Does this happen to you?
  Occasionally I will email a distant professor whose work I admire and who doesn't know me...no interest

    At least I get interest from strangers through ResearchGate in the world.

[mamselle]

I have maybe a half-dozen "friendly readers," dispersed over about as many subtopics in my work. A couple are profs, now retired, whom I met at conferences, etc.; I also look over/offer gentle edits in their work. A couple are friends with some general background who are just plain good editors, who give good advice. A couple are in totally different areas, but each of us does work that intrigues the other, so we comment on it.

When my folks were alive, I'd send them stuff, but I'm not sure if they ever read/understood it or not. They'd thank me, then discuss something else. I sometimes thought they took it as a sign of my showing them up, or getting past them, although that (going to college and beyond) was what they'd said they wanted since I was 2 years old.

I might attach something I've done to my sibs, but I doubt they'd read it either.

But why should they? It's not their area of interest; they, too, either probably think I'm "showing off" or bragging, and I don't really need their approbation to get on with my life.

It might be nice if we could share stuff like that, but there are so many bigger areas of difference that can't be discussed (red vs. blue, basically), that I'd be very surprised if they care.

And, since I don't ask my brother how he does his day-trading, or my (now-retired) sister how she ran her library, or my cousin about his long-haul moving company, why would they ask me about my research?

It's apples and kumquats to them.

They'd each see what they do as more interesting, and I don't need to force their courtesy to extend to a pretended interest in my work, just to slake my own ego.

It's harder, too, as an independent scholar,  I don't have a department or a school structure for reinforcement--but I knew that when I took that path, too, and I'm still glad to be able to do as much as I can.

The rewards are intrinsic for me, not extrinsic--it's always seemed like too much trouble to muster up a brass band in addition to finishing the piece...maybe I learned it from performing music: you play for 4 hours, enjoy the applause--and then you go home to do the laundry.

M.

[Ruralguy]

Some of my family reads some of it, judging by how they speak with me about it. Some people have contacted me about my work, somI suppose some folks are reading some of it.

[Parasaurolophus]

I don't think so, although my father read my dissertation (!).

[AvidReader]

My mother read my dissertation and first book; my father, one chapter of the latter (though he valiantly tried for the rest before asking me which chapter would be the easiest).

Spouse was given an assignment by my grad school supervisor to read the diss and "mark the spot at which it got boring"; there is a long train of Zzzzzzzs written in that draft around p. 30, which I thought was actually pretty good.

The mother of one of my former secondary students bought my first book ($$$!) for that student and student says she began it (never heard how far she got).

I have several academic friends who mention details of my work from time to time, so I think they have read bits and pieces.

AR.

[The Future]

Love this post, thanks for starting it!  That is wonderful that a few who have responded to this post do have some family & friends who have read their work.  My family & friends have not read my work and are not interested in even hearing one or two sentences about it. 
Really liked how you put it..."The rewards are intrinsic for me, not extrinsic--it's always seemed like too much trouble to muster up a brass band in addition to finishing the piece...maybe I learned it from performing music: you play for 4 hours, enjoy the applause--and then you go home to do the laundry."

I do approach other researchers at conferences and I ask about their work and also ask to collaborate with them. 

[jerseyjay]

One or both of my parents read my two books. Some friends who are interested in the topics have read one or the other. Several of my academic colleagues (i.e., people I work with) have read one or the other.

As far as I know no non-academic friend of mine has read any of my articles. And to be honest, few of my colleagues have read any of my articles, except for those whose research overlaps with mine.

I don't think that's strange. My books, while scholarly, were aimed at a large audience than my specialized articles. I would not expect non-academics--or academics whose interests do not overlap with mine--to read my writings. My father was an attorney and I never read his briefs. I have friends who are mathematicians, physicists, computer programs, etc., and I do not read their stuff. I wouldn't expect them to read mine.

[sinenomine]

Some of my colleagues on campus read at least some of my articles, but only my former dean and the library staff read my book. My family doesn't read my work; that makes me sad from time to time.

[Kron3007]

None of my non-academic friends/contacts have read any of my work as far as I know.  I think this is to be expected though, scientific articles are not really written for that audience, and I believe they would have a have a hard time really getting it all.  They may enjoy the intro etc, but beyond that I think it gets a little pedantic for most.

I assume it is similar to how I feel when I read legal documents.  I can work my way through it and understand it if I really work, but it is tedious and far from enjoyable.  I only read legal documents when I have a really good reason...

That being said, I meet many people in the field who have read, and appreciate the work.  This is who it was written for, so that is rewarding.

If you want the general public (including non-academic contacts) to read your work, you should be writing articles for non-academic journals at the appropriate level using accessable language.  Otherwise, it will be like expecting people to voluntarily read legal briefs...

This really became apparent to me recently when I was included in a part of a video.  I thought I was describing it in pretty basic terms, but some feedback I got implied that I sounded "smart", but perhaps it was still too technical.  Fortunately, it worked in this video because there was another speaker that broke it down further, so It was balanced.  I guess my point is that sometimes we forget that what we feel is common knowledge or accessable to the general public really isn't.  Not everyone has studies your specific area for decades ...

[Sun_Worshiper]

My mom and my wife are/were academics and have each read a manuscript or two on my request, before I submitted to journals, but I doubt any friends or family have ready any of my peer reviewed articles post-publication (maybe colleagues who work in my research area). I have published a few opeds and commentary pieces in the press though and so maybe friends/family read some of those.

[ab_grp]

I gave my mom a copy of my dissertation, and she joined everyone else in the world in not reading it.  I don't think she's ever read my publications.  To be fair, she wrote a book chapter that I have not read.  I did seek out and purchase the book, but the chapter is on a very specific part of her field on a topic I would never need to know about.  Maybe I should give it a read.  I am very proud of her for it and was always inspired by it!

I'm sure my friends in my field have read some of my publications that were relevant to their own work (or to be nice, if the pub was some kind of special thing) and vice versa.  I doubt any of my other friends have ever read my work.  My husband has read at least two of my book chapters to help me out with readability (and because he wanted to).  I'm sure he'd earnestly read anything I asked him to.  He's a great support.  My ex-husband never read anything I wrote, as far as I know (I also did not ask him to).  I don't think my children or brother have read anything.  The book chapters are probably straightforward enough, but the journal articles might be too technical.  The topics could conceivably of interest.  My husband makes more of a big deal to others than I do when my publications come out, and people are often very kind in sending congratulations when they are aware, but I don't think anyone has ever even pretended that they were going to read them.  I don't have that many academic friends (outside of my field and the fora) or family members, so I guess it makes sense that I am an unread entity. 

[dismalist]

When I told my mother on the telephone that I had gotten the PhD, she asked: So, what took you so long?

At some stage, dissertation and one or two other books I had published, I brought home. "Who reads this stuff," she asked.

Life wasn't meant to be easy! :-)

[lightning]

I sometimes wonder if my colleagues, who were on my tenure-promotion committee, bothered to read all the way through the abstracts of my papers that I had to submit as part of my portfolio.

When I first started out, I would ask my SO to read through my papers, for editing purposes. The SO had a vested interest in my record of successful publishing. The SO would not have read through them otherwise. I thought my parents read some of my earlier publications because they came in paper form. It ends up that they never read them.

I think that the only scholars who have any chance of getting their "scholarly work" consumed by their friends and family or even the general public, are the ones whose "published" outcomes come in the form of a gallery exhibit, a concert performance, or some other ephemeral non-text-based event.

[Vkw10]

One of my cousins read my shortest paper, because she was assigned to read and summarize a peer reviewed paper in my field. She commented that the charts were a pain.

I don't suggest that family and friends try to read my papers. I write for an audience that has a basic understanding of my field, which doesn't include my family and friends.

[RatGuy]

Not even a little bit