Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
As for newspaper reading, it is obviously down among the young. Going antedotal again, my father in law, an auto mechanic, always read the daily paper. Seems to me pretty uncommon among his young counterparts.
Can anyone find more recent, and similarly reliable, book reading statistics than what is in my link above?
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Nobody needs to do the research. I think it is unquestionable that book reading overall is down. But the newspaper example isn't a good one. It's like saying "watch ownership rates among youngsters in steep decline" equates to "children have no sense of time." If I use a news aggregator on my smartphone, I can still be an informed citizen, even if I don't read a single newspaper.
Movies are our cultures communication vehicle. I think they are inferior for some things, but that how values and ideas are communicated now. Public speakers reference movies as illustrations, because just about everyone has seen them, much as books were referenced when just about everyone had read them. Is this better or worse? That's a matter for debate.
The libraries I visit have large sections of movies along with books. They open up access to the most-common communication form of our day to those who can only afford a TV and DVD player. They still have far more books, and I hope it stays that way, but I can see the day where libraries are mostly Internet terminals, eBooks and electronic research tools. It won't be the "good old days", but the library will still be performing its basic function of open access to information for all.