I’m equally surprised how many people read extremely low quality pop fiction nowadays. Especially those romantic/erotic books. Those were the kind of book you’d be laughed at for reading back in the day.
Reading non-fiction about some current topic isn’t that bad in comparison.
I'm kinda dumping my thoughts in this reply to a bunch of the parent/sibling comments - but to me non-fiction isn't the problem, it's specifically the self-help genre that by and large seems incredibly intellectually shallow, e.g. the fast food of non-fiction.