Interesting article on the dumbing of the United States:

[jeffreyab]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Interesting excerpt:

Reading has declined not only among the poorly educated, according to a report last year by the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did.

And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book -- fiction or nonfiction -- over the course of a year.

The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004.

This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing and video games.

Comments

[trevix.livejournal.com]

Scary, huh.

I've been saying that for years. Isn't it nice to see how long it's taken others to see it. :(

We should be very scared that this is occurring.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I think it means also that instead of reading in a linear manner from beginning to end, people are reading in blips, snatches of stuff on the Net. Also the rise of the electronic game as entertainment means that entertainment has become more interactive.

[reddherring1955.livejournal.com]

Ahem. I am so insulted by that survey. No one asked me any questions. I read or finished three novels last week and probably at least six total since the new year started (I don't normally keep track -- that's an average). Spent part of last night organizing the queue for next reading selection. There were 26 novels, 27 non-fiction books, at least five more books each on writing or physical health/exercise and one unclassifiable by Mark Twain (apparently newly published collection of wit on the joys of misbehavior), not to mention the February Asimov's (have to read James Alan Gardner's new story ASAP) and a new copy of Writer's Digest magazine -- some how I managed to buy two copies, does that count for anything?

Raspberries on that survey! They just asked the wrong people!

Who says no one reads any more?

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

You did get mentioned by inference, more than 50% of Americans did read at least one book during the period studied.

[reddherring1955.livejournal.com]

Don't us multi-book readers get even a footnote? How sad for everyone else to have lost the ticket to so much romance, adventure, excitement, thrills, chills, knowledge, etc., etc., even though the Internet must be giving away quick rides on the information highway. Did anyone count ebooks read? What about books available on the Web that have slipped quietly into the public domain?

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure the conclusion is valid from the facts. The fact is that there are many more alternatives of delivering information from content owners to content users. The fact that people don't read hardcopy print books doesn't mean they are reading less.

Other recent studies show that people are watching a lot less television doesn't mean they are getting less content, it just means they are getting content (including some television programs) through other channels.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I think it does mean they are changing the way they read.

With a book you usually read from front to back in a linear fashion.

On the net you can jump around and follow a thought in a nonlinear fashion.

Video games are the same way they do not read exactly the same the next time you play them, the good ones vary quite a bit.