Americans are reading less and their reading proficiency is declining at troubling rates, reports the National Endowment for the Arts*. This is especially true of children aged 9 and upwards. The percentage of 17 year olds reading every day for fun dropped from 32 in 1984 to 22 in 2004, with average reading scores showing steady decline. The percentage of college graduates who tested as “proficient in reading prose†declined from 40 to 31 per cent between 1992 and 2003. Good reading skills correlate with higher earnings and more job opportunities. Important though the internet is, it “does not seem to nourish the sustained, linear attention†that reading books etc do, according to Professor Mathew Kirschenbaum of University of Maryland.Â
A less informed and civilized population does nothing to enhance ataraxia. Epicurus would be concerned. The key component of a good life is the ability to think for oneself and not to conform or to lazily accept what you have been told in school or church.   Reading is an important aid to thinking for oneself.  A conformist nation is cannot be a civilized nation.
Report entitled “To read or not to read†November 2007
Something similar is happening in Europe. It isn’t just an American phenomenon. I would put it down, at least in part, to affluence and the huge, unprecedented choice kids have. My seven year old grandson acquired one of these Play Stations, (in my personal opinion one of the great misuses of modern technology!), which might arguably help his cognitive reactions but which does nothing for his education, reading or social skills. In the battle to try to make him a sentient, civilized person, my wife and I are giving him BOOKS to read for Christmas. The Grandparent Police are on duty! Today, December 16th, is the day he is receiving his presents.
Note: December 25th was chosen by the ancient Christians to coincide with the mid-winter pagan festival. They then constructed the charming and delightful (but bogus) fairytale about the Three Wise Men and the stable. It’s nice to know there were three wise men back then, because we have no wise rulers left today. Be that as it may, it is of no importance on which day one celebrates the mid-winter festival
You know, they said the same thing about books! Keeping kids inside reading, when they should be outside living!
Reading and writing just are not that important nowadays. Not everyone wants to be edumacated.
I think we are seeing a bit of a rebellion, by those who are not so bright, against those who are. Modern socity selects for intelligence, and there must be great resentment among those who just can’t cut it in the brains department. Since that includes at least half the population, it is tough to fight it. 🙂
You raise a very important point. I am going to be fried for saying this, but once you extend the franchise to everyone, however ill-informed, and you don’t educate them sufficiently, you are inevitably going to get a breed of people (running the salacious end of the media in particular) who have chips on their shoulders, are anti-intellectual, and want to bring everything down to the lowest common denominator. The Sun newspaper in Britain has successfully, in my opinion, brought the Press to an all-time low – sex and made-up gossip and celebrity-chasing being only three aspects of their “work”. It makes money. Bound to, because catering to the lowest common denominator always will. But good for the country, for beauty and ataraxia?
O.K, I sound like an intolerant old colonel when I am supposed to be an Epicurean! Humour me!